the princess wears breeches
by thegirlofmanymoods
Summary: Sakura isn't an average princess. Instead of living the pampered life of royalty, she lives with her step mom in a forest. It was a calm life, at least until she was kidnapped. What followed was a series of events that would change the world forever.
1. the beginning: edited

**Hey, I've edited this chapter. Since I'm just editing it, not completely rewriting it, and not adding anything new, it's still short. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

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"Sakura, get up,'' a rather loud voice called from the kitchen. A sleepy sixteen year old pink haired girl groaned in response. Usually she was all for getting up early, but the day before she was up very late helping some wounded patients in the tiny hospital in Tora. She didn't get back till about midnight, and then she had to do her chores around the house. By the time she went to bed it was probably around one in the morning.

"Coming Tayo!" she called as she slowly got up from her warm haven. As much as she wanted to sleep**,** she didn't want to face the wrath of her step mother. Many a time had she attempted to sleep in only to get a bucket of freezing cold water splashed onto her face. It really was not a nice way to wake up in the morning, though it did make you feel very awake afterwards.

As her feet touched the cold wooden floor, she quickly made her bed. To be quite honest she didn't really see the point of it. After all**,** you were just going to sleep in it again later on in the day. But again, she didn't want to get Tayo annoyed with her.

She went over to her dresser to pick out some clothes. After one moment of consideration**,** she picked out a pair of worn brown breeches and a green shirt. It used to be part of a dress**,** but thankfully she had managed to convince Tayo to cut it into a shirt. She hated dresses; they were so uncomfortable and hard to move in. Just the thought of wearing them everyday like most females did made her shudder.

That was something that seemed to separate her from most people. Even in the small village of Tora**,** she would stand out because of her fashion choices, well that and her signature pink hair. But those weren't the only reasons why she was different although they were the only reasons that other people knew about.

Sakura was a princess. Yes, seeing as how she lived in the forest with her step mother, volunteered in the hospital in Tora, and would willingly dress in clothes that could resemble rags**,** it was hard to believe. It was a fact only three people knew about. Her and her parents back in Heilig. Her step father, Haru, had known it but unfortunately he had taken the knowledge to his grave.

After she was dressed and had deposited her night clothes into a small hamper**,** she quickly braided her long pink hair, washed face in a small basin full of water, and went down the stairs of the cottage to the kitchen. When arriving she saw that Tayo was already cleaning the plate that she had used for her own breakfast. Upon seeing Sakura**,** Tayo pointed to the table, where a piece of bread with butter on it and a glass of water were located. "Thanks," she told Tayo as she sat down.

As she ate**,** she thought about everything that Tayo did for her. Sakura was always interested in medicine and upon seeing that**,** Tayo had taken it upon herself to teach the pink haired girl more about it. Tayo also decided to look after the girl, even after her husband had died. She was like a second mother to Sakura.

Sakura didn't know much about her actual mother. She was born in the palace of Heilig, but she didn't remember anything about the palace or her parents. At the age of two the kingdom of Heilig had been involved in a war and for safety reasons Sakura had been shipped off to the place where she was currently residing. Originally it had just been her and Haru. He was a kind man who had taught her self-defence and archery. When she had turned ten, Haru had married Tayo, who had just moved into the village from another called Naboo and the three became a small family. Unfortunately just one year later Haru had died in a bush fire leaving Sakura and Tayo alone. However the two had managed well. Tayo was a traveling healer and would go to houses where people were too ill to be taken to a hospital on horseback or on a carriage while Sakura would help out in the hospital. While Tayo would handle all of the house work inside Sakura would do all the necessary chores outside such as chopping fire wood and taking care of the horses.

Soon Sakura finished her small meal. "Thank you," she told Tayo as she put her dishes into the sink. She then walked out of the house to their small stable. They owned two horses; a tall, black horse with a love of speed who belonged to Sakura. The other was an older, calmer horse they called Alba. She gave both of the horses more feed then led them out to a small nearby stream for water. After that she put Alba back into the stable and rode Blackfire bareback into Tora.

After a thirty minute ride**,** she arrived in the village. The girl immediately went over to the hospital, flashing smiles at those who greeted her. After arriving at the hospital, which from the outside just appeared to be a large house, the pink haired medic dismounted Blackfire and went in to the hospital. Sakura didn't need to tie her horse, instead she allowed Blackfire to wander around, knowing Blackfire would always come back when it was time to do so.

When she walked into the hospital**,** she went past a few rooms in search of Taka, the hospital's main healer. She found the middle aged women spoon feeding a patient. "Hey Taka," Sakura greeted her.

"Hello Sakura, ready to help me now?'' Taka asked with a smile, looking up from her task.

"Yes, let's start,'' Sakura answered her, returning the smile. Taka would always ask the exact same question and Sakura would always have that answer. It was a sort of routine the two shared.

Sakura started walking around the hospital, helping patients and assisting other healers. She quickly lost track of time and was focused solely on her work. That continued until Taka came into the room and told Sakura that she should return home before it got too dark out. Sakura nodded, told Taka goodbye, and rode Blackfire (who was there waiting for her) back to her home in the forest. That was her usual routine that she did every day. Last night was an exception; she needed to stay longer since some middle aged men, drunk off of rum, decided that it was a good idea to see if they could jump off their roofs onto their horses. Obviously it didn't end very well.

She arrived home just as darkness was beginning to spread across the sky. Then she fed and watered the horses, checked the fire wood (they still had a big supply), checked if anything needed to be fixed around the stable and went inside the house. She and Tayo chatted over what they had done throughout the day while eating supper. Sakura told her about some kid mistaking her for his mother and basically trying to latch himself to her when she was in his room. And Tayo in turn told her about an entire family that had small pox and how sorry she felt for them.

When supper was over, Sakura returned to the stable to brush the horses, then sat down on the grass to look up at the stars. It would be amazing if her life would always be like this. Unlike some other teens, the young medic wasn't looking to have adventure in her life, or even romance. The life the pink haired girl had was good just the way it was. That was the main reason why when her parents sent a secret messenger last year, asking if their daughter wanted to return to the palace, Sakura declined. Why would she want to live some boring life as a spoiled princess? Plus, what would the medic tell Tayo and the people in the village? After all, it wasn't like the pinkette could just tell them "hey, believe it or not I'm actually a princess and I've just been pretending to live like a normal person here. I'm going to go back to the palace now, bye!" Somehow she didn't see that going very well.

Sometimes she herself found it hard to believe that she was a princess. It if it wasn't for a small tattoo that had been branded to her shoulder a few months after birth, and a necklace the girl always wore which showed that the person who wore it was a member of royalty; the medic would have thought it to be untrue. She took out the necklace from under her shirt and stared at it, fingering the design at the same time. It was an eagle surrounded by a star; an identical design was embedded in the tattoo on her arm. The eagle was the symbol for Heilig, and the star symbolized royalty. The necklace itself was made of gold. Sakura, being a rather simple person, almost felt disgusted thinking about it. Here the princess was, wearing some of the world's most expensive jewellery while other people out there were starving, not even able to buy a crust of bread. She quickly tucked the necklace back into her shirt and stared at the stars once more.

Sakura remained like that until Tayo called for her come back in and get some sleep, unless the girl planned on sleeping on the grass. Since Sakura enjoyed dozing off in a bed, she quickly complied. The pinkette told Tayo goodnight, went upstairs, changed into night clothes, and crawled into bed. Her last thoughts were about how many people needed to be treated tomorrow in the hospital. There probably wouldn't be too many people in it tomorrow. The princess had no idea how wrong she was going to be, and it was all because of her.


	2. Life will never be the same edited

**Chapter Two is now edited.**

The next day a first happened for Sakura: she actually managed to get up before Tayo. Even though the event was only caused by a bird pecking on her window, she still took pride in her small accomplishment. The girl quickly changed into a pair of breeches and a shirt, made sure the necklace was safely tucked under her it, washed her face, and braided her hair before rushing downstairs.

She knew that she was there before Tayo was because when Sakura arrived downstairs, the kitchen was silent and uninhabited. Whenever Tayo was up and dressed, she would always go immediately into the kitchen. But just to make sure, Sakura checked Tayo's bedroom. Sure enough, the woman was still there in her bed sleeping away.

Sakura was about to leave, but just as she was about to go something caught her eye. By Tayo's dresser there was an open cabinet; a cabinet that was almost always locked. Influenced by overwhelming curiosity, the pinkette decided to see what was in it. So she crept over to the dresser as quietly as possible and peered inside of it. After just expecting the contents to be jewellery, the pinkette was really surprised when there were letters there instead. Carefully she picked one up. Unfortunately before the medic could look over it the sound of Tayo stirring caused her to put the letter back and leave the room as quickly as possible. All she remembered was that the letter was sent by someone with a long name which started with the letter 'O'.

She made her way over to the kitchen: might as well surprise Tayo and make breakfast. Let's see, what did Tayo like eating? Well she usually had something more elaborate than just bread and butter, which Sakura decided that she herself would have. Usually Tayo had mixed fruit and cheese so Sakura went outside and down into their cellar to retrieve the desired food items. Five minutes later, the princess returned to the kitchen with an apple, pear and a block of cheese to find the room empty, indicating that Tayo was still asleep. Good. She began the tedious task of peeling the apple: that was harder then she first suspected it to be. The knife kept slipping under her grasp and she could not take off more than one small slice of pealing at a time. She narrowed her eyes in frustration: stupid apple!

"Need a little help?" Tayo asked, walking into the kitchen. She moved over to Sakura and laughed at the apple. "At this rate you're going to take off most away the apple along with the peel. Here I'll finish it." She took the knife from Sakura and quickly peeled it. Sakura blinked at how easy she made it look. Now she had a new respect for people who could peel fruit.

So with Tayo preparing her own breakfast Sakura in turn quickly made her own. She smeared the butter over the bread and quickly wolfed it down. Tayo was just beginning her own breakfast just as Sakura finished hers. "My goodness you eat quickly," Tayo commented when Sakura stood up.

Sakura shrugged. "I always eat fast." With that, she placed her plate in the sink then went outside to the horses. She continued the normal custom of feeding and watering the horses, then road Blackfire into the village. This time she chose to ride her horse in a saddle. She didn't need Taka to give her yet another lecture on how improper it looked to ride bareback.

As they were riding towards Tora. Sakura began to mentally prepare herself for another day at the hospital. She'd make her rounds, tend to the patients on the upstairs level, and see if any of the other healers needed assistants... Wait, what was that? As they neared the village she began to see smoke, and the sounds of people screaming began to fill her ears. What was going on?

Urging Blackfire to speed up, her eyes hurriedly tried to take in as much of the scene as she possibly could. People were being chased and attacked by other people with swords, buildings were being put on fire, and debris was flying everywhere. The village was under attack! But by whom?

The stubborn medic tried to find this out when they reached the village. Knowing she could see more from sitting on her horse than standing on the ground, Sakura stayed on Blackfire. Her eyes wandered around the chaos once more until she pinpointed the cause. There was a ship in the distant ocean that surrounded part of the village. Pirates! But, what would_ they_ want to come here for? One glance at the place showed that it was under no means rich. There was nothing here any thief would want. So then why were they here?

Well, the girl was no help staying there like a sitting duck, but where to go? The hospital was the first answer that popped into her mind so that was where Sakura went. Relief struck her when she found that the building was one of the few in the village that stood unharmed, but what about the inside?

Before Sakura followed her urge to run inside, she stopped herself. _Focus girl, do you have any weapons?_ Her first thought was no, but after looking around the pinkette spotted the most glorious sight she had ever seen in her life: her arrows! They were left on her saddle last week when the pinkette had taken Blackfire deeper into the forest to do some target practice among the trees. Sakura had meant to take them off of the saddle and place them back into her room, but she had forgotten. Thank you forgetfulness!

So she quickly dismounted Blackfire, grabbed her bow and arrows, and ran into the hospital, strapping her weapons and their pouch to her back as she did so. At first glance the hospital appeared to fine, but as she went farther inside, she heard a women yelling, but couldn't make out what was said. There was a quick response, fear evident in all of it, and it sounded like it was from Taka.

Sakura started running towards the direction of the noise, soon finding that the sound was coming from a room at the far end of the hall. Before entering the room, the teen stood beside the doorway, took an arrow out of the pouch, retrieved her bow, and loaded the arrow onto it. Then pulled the string back and kept the weapon ready as she walked into the room.

When the medic walked into the room, she saw Taka being held up by the neckline of her clothes by a blonde girl, not much older than Sakura. The girl must have been strong, because she only needed one hand to hold up Taka, the other was used to hold a sword. The pair were too deep into their current situation to notice Sakura. "Where is she?" the blonde girl demanded, yelling the question. She lifted the sword closer to Taka's neck.

"I d-don't k-know,'' stammered Taka, her eyes wide with her fear; her entire body was shaking.

"Liar!" the assailant screamed, pressing the sword against Taka's neck.

Sakura had seen enough. As fast as she could, she pointed her bow, aimed and fired, making sure to miss the blonde just barely. The arrow whizzed by her head, only missing by millimetres. It had been enough to get the female's attention. Her head jerked towards the direction that that arrow came from and her eyes narrowed at Sakura.

"Get away from her!" Sakura warned another arrow already loaded and ready, her vision turning red. This time the angry medic might not try to miss Taka's attacker. The female dropped Taka and focused her attention solely on the pinkette. She looked as if she was about to say something, but Sakura didn't give her a chance. Blinded by anger, she just wanted to get the blonde away from Taka so she shot the arrow, piercing the girl's hand. The blonde girl screamed in pain as she clutched her mangled appendage. The sword banged as it fell to the floor, but neither of them seemed to notice it. Sakura took out yet another arrow and aimed it at the foreigner once more. The blonde's eyes narrowed, but this time she took a few steps back. Sakura began to walk towards her, arrow pointed straight her heart. The blonde kept backing away until she reached the end of the room. Then her blue eyes narrowed at the pinkette once more before she jumped out of the nearby window.

Sakura ran over to the window and looked out. The window was close enough to the ground for the blonde to not get injured jumping out of it. She looked around for the strange girl but there was no trace of her. So Sakura took her attention away from the window to run back to Taka, who was still on the floor. "Thank you Sakura," the women told her.

Sakura helped the woman up and then asked, "What was she doing here?"

"She claimed to be looking for the princess of Heilig," Taka replied. "Imagine looking for the princess here of all places!"

Sakura froze, no longer listening to Taka state how crazy the pirates must have been. Time seemed to stop and she made a realization: _the pirates were here because of her_. She scooped up her arrows, which she had dropped in order to help Taka get up, and rushed out of the room. How could they know that she was here? No one else knew.

The medic ran out of the hospital, unsure of what to do next. Fortunately, she didn't really have to decide when a male with long brown hair and fierce lilac eyes ran up her wielding a sword. This guy was skilled; she hadn't noticed him until there was little time to dodge the swing of his sword. Sakura had been able to miss it, but it did chop off a part of her hair that had come loose from her braid. To retaliate she turned her body to the side and kicked his midsection, causing him to stumble back. She followed this up by giving him a scissor kick to the ribs. As he fell, she quickly strapped her bow and arrows to a strap on her back. She had a feeling that she would need to fight barehanded.

But something-or someone rather, caught her off guard. A kick to her back forced her to fall to the ground and Sakura looked up just in time to roll away from a sword that came down right to the spot where she had landed. When scrambled to her feet, she saw that the person holding a sword was another female, this one with brown hair tied up in buns. But what Sakura noticed most about her was the look of enragement in the girl's eyes. She looked like she was ready to kill the pinkette.

By that time, the male had gotten up and was running over to Sakura. One look told her that it was going to be a two on one attack and the battle began. She had to move all of her limbs faster than ever before in her life. Not only did these two have an advantage in terms of numbers, but they also both had swords while she was weaponless. Sure she had her arrows, but with the amount of time it took to prepare and fire them, they pretty much useless at this point. Block a kick here, turn away from a sword there. This was easily the hardest fight she had ever been in her life, but she didn't have time to think about that at the moment.

She was so focused on blocking all of their shots that there was no time to give them any of her own. She moved her arm to block a shot from the male, only to have to kick up her leg to block a kick from the girl. As she moved, Sakura began to feel like this was never going to end. But, just after the thought crossed her mind, the brown haired girl made a mistake: when she faked a punch to Sakura's right temple, she pulled back too quickly, letting Sakura know her intentions. She had an opening so not only did she block the girl's attack, but she managed to counter it by twisting back the girl's arm and elbowing her in the jaw. The boy stopped in surprise only for one moment, but that one moment was enough. She did a flip and when both her legs were suspended in the air, she pushed both her feet against his midsection. The strength of the kick managed to make him fly back.

With both of the attackers on the ground, Sakura now had a chance to escape, but right before she was about to flee, she caught sight of the village. People continued to scream, the small town was nearly consumed by fire, and there was still chaos all around Tora...because of her. Guilt weighed down upon her; she never wanted anyone to suffer.

So when the two began to get up and the blonde that had attacked Taka began running towards to assist the other two, she held up her hand. "Wait," she told them. They stopped in surprise and confusion. "I'll go with you."

It was the brown haired girl who spoke. "Why would we want _you_ to come with _us_?"

Sakura took the necklace that had previously been hidden out of her shirt. "Because I'm the one you're looking for."

The two females gasped, but the boy looked at her sceptically. "Do you have the tattoo?"

Sakura turned around and pulled down her shirt, allowing them to see the tattoo. "Yes." Then she turned back around. "I'll go with you, just stop attacking the village."

The blue eyed girl paused for a moment before replying. "Alright," she looked at the two with her. "Tenten, Neji, take her back to the ship. I'll round up the others."

The other two nodded then the one who gave the commands ran off. The two, apparently named Tenten and Neji, walked towards Sakura and positioned themselves so that Neji was on her left side and Tenten was on her right. "Come with us," Neji instructed her.

Sakura nodded and began to walk with them. She kept her head down the entire time partly because it made her look defeated, which would help to convince them that she wasn't about to run off. But also because of the shame she felt for what had happened to the village. It was going to take them months to recover from this.

No one spoke until they reached two small boats, likely a means to get onto the larger ship. "Get in," Neji instructed her. Silently she obeyed, stepped into one of the boats, and sat down, her head still hanging low. The other two went in with her, picked up oars, and began to row back to the ship.

Soon they reached the large vessel and after they hauled and strapped the small boat onto the ship, they boarded the huge structure. When they were on the main deck, Sakura looked over to Neji and spoke for the first time since her agreement to go with them. "What now?"

He turned to look at her. "We wait until the others return."

* * *

Sakura gazed out at the ocean. So this was it; she was going to leave the village and her dream life possibly for good to go with some pirates for who knew how long. What was going to happen to her?

Her question was soon answered when Sakura heard another boat being strapped onto the ship. She turned around to see more people board the vessel. The only one she recognized was the girl who attacked Taka; everyone else was a stranger. There was a male with really weird makeup covering his face, a frail looking girl with the same eyes as Neji, another brunette male, this one with a dog on top of his head and the one that gained most of her attention: a male with bright red hair. One look at him told her that he was well built. Everything about him: his jade eyes, the swift angle of his jaw line, his small sharp nose, even the way he walked seemed to demand authority. It was obvious that he was captain of the group. He must have noticed her watching him because his eyes soon clashed with hers and his gaze darkened. Sakura didn't back down and look away; she kept her gaze locked with his. She knew she should feel afraid, or at least nervous, but yet, somehow she kind of felt...intrigued by him.

"Is that her?" he asked, his eyes moved as he looked her up and down, inspecting her.

"Yes," she heard the blonde girl reply. "She's the princess; she has the necklace and the tattoo."

"Doesn't look like one." he said plainly. Sakura had to seriously fight the urge to frown and ball up her fists; she was probably the only princess that arrogant jerk had ever seen in his life! And he still had the nerve to judge her aloud like that. He walked up to her and with two fingers lifted up her necklace and inspected it. Then he walked behind her and pulled down her shirt to see her shoulder. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as he did so. Apparently he had no regard for personal space. After seeing her tattoo he mumbled to himself. "So she is." Then he announced louder. "Tie her up till we far out enough for her not to able to swim back."

"What?" Sakura whipped around to face him. Did she look like she was going to jump off the boat? "In case you hadn't noticed buddy, I came here willingly. You don't have any reason to tie me up."

He raised an imaginary eyebrow and almost seemed like he was about to smirk at her outburst, but then he simply replied, "I don't take chances." With that he turned and looked like he was about to walk away.

But before he started, Sakura quickly stated, "You know, I still don't have a clue as to why I'm here."

He turned around; this time he _did_ smirk at her comment. "You have no idea do you?"

Confused and annoyed at his question, she replied, "Obviously."

"You're here," he began. "Because your parents back in Heilig have a certain gem that we wish to possess. Do you know about that?" She shook her head, honestly having no idea what the heck he was talking about. "That gem controls a very powerful dragon. We are going to use you as a ransom to get that gem from your parents. Honestly I'm surprised that you don't know about the gem. Much of the world knows about it."

"Well excuse me for not knowing about some stupid rock," she replied sarcastically.

"That 'stupid rock' is a lot more powerful then you seem to think to think it is," he told her. "Your parents have gone to a great length to protect it. So far no one has been able to steal it. This is why we have decided to use you as ransom. But honestly, I started to have doubts about whether that would work or not when I found out that they had dumped you in that small village."

"I was at that village because I chose to be," she interrupted, angered by his accusation. "They asked me to come back to the palace before but I declined their invitation."

"Oh you did?" His eyes seemed to have a small glitter of amusement in them; almost as if he was taking pleasure in her displeasure. "Well that makes it better for us now doesn't it?" With that, he turned once again and walked away. Before he disappeared down a corridor, he spoke loudly, "Make sure the knots are tight when you tie her. We leave immediately."

She glared at the last place she had seen him at; that rude, conceited, nasty brute! She hoped that while she was here, she would see as little of that bastard as possible. As she continued to mentally curse him, the crew members began to scatter, each leaving to due various duties on the ship. Her trance was broken when she felt her hands being put behind her back and looked to see the blonde tying her up. "Sorry," she told Sakura. "Have to follow orders. By the way I'm Temari."

Sakura remained silent so Temari continued. "Might as well get introductions out of the way. You probably heard me call Neji and Tenten before so you know who they are. The dog boy's name is Kiba, the shy girl who has the same eyes as Neji is Hinata, you'll probably notice that she's more docile than anyone else on the guy with makeup, or what he calls face paint, is Kankurou, my little brother. Finally the guy you seemed to be squaring off with was Gaara, the captain, also my little brother."

The pinkette nodded as she took in all of their names. "Well," she began. "You know who I am so I guess I don't need to introduce myself."

"No you don't, Sakura," Temari replied, finishing tying the knots on Sakura's bonds. As she did so the ship started to move. "Alright, that's finished." She looked around and started yelling. "Hinata, lead Sakura to the cabin that she's staying in!"

The lilac eyed girl appeared and walked over to them. "Ok Temari," she looked at Sakura. "Come on please." The nervousness of the girl almost made Sakura feel sorry for her. It struck her as odd that Hinata was the one that was acting panicked when she was the one who had the upper hand, but maybe the girl was just naturally that way.

They walked over into one of the few halls on the ship and went past two doors until they stopped at a door way. "In here," Hinata instructed as she opened the door. Sakura walked into it; it looked like a very basic bedroom: a bed near a small window, a small dresser and a tiny bedside table made up the furniture in the room. "Hope you like it," Hinata added quickly.

Sakura looked at her and smiled. The funny part was that this cabin was actually bigger then her actual bedroom. "It's a lot better than I was expecting." Then she motioned towards the tight bonds around her arm which were starting to cut off the circulation in them. Temari sure knew how to tie strong knots. "By the way, when do you think that I'll be able to get these off?"

"Probably soon," Hinata assured her. "Temari will probably be the one take them off. Bye." With that Hinata left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Sakura stood still for a moment, trying to take in everything that had just taken place. So she had been kidnapped by pirates to be used to get a gem she didn't even know existed from parents she hardly remembered. Strange didn't come close to describing it. What would Tayo and Taka do now that she was gone? Would they miss Sakura? Would Blackfire? Sakura knew that she would miss them.

She walked towards the window and looked out of it. The princess could still see part of the village from here. The hospital was probably going to be filled up now and they were most likely going to have to send a lot of injured people to neighbouring hospitals in other villages, even though some probably wouldn't be able to make the journey. The guilt that she had felt before was now sinking in once more. She had caused all of that. If it wasn't for her, those people would be going about their normal business, but because of the medic, houses were destroyed; people were injured, if not dying, some being forced to start their lives over from scratch due their homes and stores demolished. And the worst part of it was that she had caused it all...it was her fault.

**Hoped everyone liked it. Please review and tell me your thoughts.**


	3. edited

Sakura woke up when a ray of sunlight streamed from her window onto her bed. She groaned, wanting to sleep in the comfort of her bed a while longer. "But if I don't get up Tayo's going to give me a bucket of water to the face." she thought to herself. So slowly she began to rise and rubbed her eyes.

Wait, this wasn't her room. And this was definitely not her bed. Where was she? Oh right. She remembered the events that had taken place yesterday. Tora was under attack because of her, she got kidnapped by pirates, she was taken to this room, lied on the bed until Temari came and untied her bonds while complaining about the cut on her hand that Sakura gave her, took off her arrows and laid them on top of the dresser and finally, Sakura stayed in the cabin sitting on the bed till she felt tired and fell asleep. Her gaze drifted down towards the bed that she was currently in. So apparently this was going to be her bed for a while. A sour expression fell upon her face. She didn't want this to have to be her bed.

She got out her bed and stretched, the sour look remaining on her face. Once she got out she had to stop herself from changing. These were the only clothes she had on this ship, right. Well, if she starts to stink after a few days, it sucks to be the people who have to smell it. Serves them right. Then she suddenly felt like slapping herself. After everything that had happened she was worried about _clothes_?

So what to do now...There wasn't much she _could _do on a ship, especially when she was the captive on the ship. She looked back towards her bed, suddenly having an urge to go back in it and sulk. But she didn't have the opportunity to do so because Hinata entered the cabin. "Sakura?" she began when she walked into the room.

"Yes?" Sakura replied, raising an eyebrow. She had to remind herself that Hinata seemed to naturally be nervous all the time.

"It's time for breakfast, we want you to join us," the timid female explained.

That comment made the second eyebrow go up. They wanted her to eat with them? But she was a captive? She had just been expecting them to bring a plate a food and leave once a day or something like that. But since they invited her, should she go with them? Did she even _want_ to eat with them? Absolutely not. After all they did kidnap her and terrorize her village. But what if they decided that since she declined their invitation they would starve her? As much as she didn't like them, she didn't want to starve. Fine, she would go.

So she nodded at Hinata and walked over to the door. "Alright." Now instead of a sour look on her face she just had a blank expression. The two walked over through one hall and into another, where there were only two rooms. One of them had the door shut, the other was opened. It led into what looked like a dining hall. And low and behold, there they were. Gaara, Neji and Tenten were all sitting there on a long table that seated eight. The people that had turned the village into rubble, the people who kidnapped her, the people who changed her perfect life forever and didn't even seem to care. They all turned to look at her. She simply stared back at them with an empty stare, fighting the urge to glare at them. Although Hinata went and sat down, Sakura stayed there at the doorway until Tenten told her. "Sit down already. We don't bite." No, they didn't bite, they did something a whole lot worse.

Sakura silently obeyed the command. She went and sat down at one of the seats at the far side of the table. Each place at the table already had plates and utensils laid out and the food was in the centre of the table.

Before she began taking food she looked at what at the table. There were peaches, apples, bread and butter. She reached for the bread and took her knife to scrape some butter from the dish. Then she scraped it onto the toast and placed it on her plate. But she didn't pick it up and eat it. She just stared down at it, thinking of how everyone at the village was now suffering. Perhaps unable to find any scraps of food to eat. For a moment, she allowed her mind to absently wander to think about where the other crew members were. Probably either working on something in the ship, or just still in bed.

As if on cue Kiba, Temari and Kankurou walked in. Sakura noted that Temari now had a bandage on the hand that Sakura had shot with an arrow. And Sakura couldn't help but notice how badly it was placed onto her hand. It was incredibly loose and appeared to able to come off at any given moment. Kiba sat down next to Sakura. "Hey," he greeted her. "You got up early." Sakura simply glanced at him with the same expression that she had used for Tenten, and then stared back down at her plate. But then she felt something wet on her hand. She looked over to see the dog that had been on Kiba's head the day before licking her hand. At first she wanted to swat him away, because his apparent owner was one of the people who destroyed her life. But then her love for animals began to overpower that urge and before she could register what she was doing, she was petting the dog. Curses! "His name's Akamaru," Kiba told her. Hearing him comment about the dog gave her enough incentive to take her hand away from the canine, causing the dog to whine in response. It took a lot of strength for her not to continue petting Akamaru.

She stared back down at her plate and felt a few wisps of hair slip out of her braid. Figures, it had been left in that style the night before and the pinkette hadn't bothered to touch her hair since then. The others were beginning to have their own private conversations, although she hardly took notice. She continued to stare at the plate until Temari spoke to her. "You know you're food isn't poisonous."

Sakura's eyes shot up to meet the blonde's. Then she purposefully brought her bread up to her lips and took an overdramatic bite out of it. Afterwards she her eyebrows went to show a 'are you happy now' look. "Somebody's in a bad mood," Temari told her. "Get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

"Well I'm sorry that after watching Tora get practically destroyed and getting kidnapped for some rock that I didn't even know about, I'm not in the best of moods," Sakura snapped back, speaking for the first time since she had got to the table.

"So you're still not over that yet," Temari replied.

"What?" Sakura replied, surprise evident in her eyes. Temari seemed to act like wasn't a big deal. How was getting kidnapped not a big deal? Was she missing something?

"Well you should be over it by now," Temari continued. "After all-" She was cut off when she heard Gaara loudly clear his throat. Sakura saw him give her a warning look. "Well you're just going back home to the palace anyways."

"The palace is not my home," Sakura swiftly replied. "Besides, you almost completely destroyed my village."

"It had to be done," this time is was Gaara who replied.

"Why?" she demanded to know. But he didn't answer. So, not wanting to be with them any longer she got up and walked away from the table.

"What about your food?" Temari called after her.

Sakura turned back to look at her and shrugged. "Not hungry." That was sort of a lie but oh well, they didn't need to know that. "And by the way Temari, you should probably get that bandage fixed. It's not going to do much help the way it is now," She didn't know why she added that part in. It was probably just that years of working in a hospital made her continuously aware of medical problems and have a need of pointing them out. She turned away from them and continued to walk to her cabin.

Fortunately, she found it rather quickly. Sakura slumped back onto her bed (realizing that it was still unmade) and placed her head against the headboard of the bed, shut her eyes and allowed her mind to wander. What was with those people? After everything that they did to her and the people of Tora, they acted like they didn't do anything wrong. And they way they talked to her defied every story she had heard of someone being kidnapped. They were supposed to keep her locked in her bedroom, only opening the door to push in some scraps for food. But they acted almost welcoming towards her. She thought back to the small conversation she had with Temari. What was the blonde saying before she was interrupted by Gaara?

The sound of the door opening interrupted her thoughts. She opened her eyes to see Akamaru walking in and jumping on her bed. Now that they were away from the crew, she began to pet him, a small smile showing as she did so. At least there was someone here that she liked now, even if they were a dog. "Hey boy," she whispered to the canine softly.

"I knew you had a soft spot for him," Kiba spoke walking in. Of course, she should have known that he would be accompanying Akamaru. After all, how would a small dog like Akamaru be able to get a door open? "I thought you might want to finish this," he continued, reaching out his arm. In his hand was a plate with the piece of bread that she had left at the table.

She eyed him carefully as he set the food down on her bed beside her. "Why are you doing this?" she asked him.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she repeated, finally voicing the thoughts she had been having just seconds earlier. "Why is everyone acting so friendly? I'm supposed to be a captive and yet you're acting like I'm not."

"Do you want to be treated like a prisoner?" he asked, looking at her incredulously.

She quickly shook her head. "Of course not. It's just weird, not at all what I was expecting. I mean, how can someone who kidnaps you and terrorize the place you come from suddenly act nice to you? And then think you're strange for not acting friendly back, even with everything that had just happened to you. Also everything is just happening so quickly. I don't know what to think anymore or how to act or anything."

He paused for a moment after her small rant was over and nodded. "I can see why you would be frustrated about that. But unfortunately, I can't offer you much help. Especially because I'm one of those people who apparently should not act friendly towards you. But please, take my word for it. It's going to go a lot better for you then you think. And please try to give everyone a chance; they're really not as bad as you seem to think they are." She didn't respond so he whistled to Akamaru, who bounded off the bed to join his master. They started to leave, but then Kiba poked his head back into the room. "By the way, Tenten wants to train with you sometime," With that, he left, shutting the door behind him.

She stared at the door for awhile, not sure of what to take from his speech. Then she took the plate and quickly ate the bread that lay on it. When she finished the bread, she placed the plate on the bedside table. Then she laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. It seemed like Kiba was trying to be the sweet guy that would separate himself from the others to get close to you. At first it sort of disgusted her. After all he was one of the people that destroyed Tora, even if he was making more of an effort to get close to her. But still, it would be nice to have someone on this ship to talk to. Wait, what was she thinking? After what they did, she could not befriend one of them. That would be like stabbing the people of Tora in the back.

And what the heck did Kiba mean by saying it was going to go better for her then she thought? Of course it wasn't going to go better then she thought. They were going to keep her here on this ship, then dump her at the palace to steal this gem thingy. How was it supposed to get better? She was also definitely not going to 'give everyone a chance' like Kiba had asked. And she was absolutely not going to train with Tenten. She wanted to stay away from these people. But, they acted nice to her today, especially Kiba. Arg, this was so frustrating. It was supposed to be simpler. She should hate the people who kidnapped her and they in turn should act harshly towards her. But this was getting complicated and felt herself feeling torn between a small likeness for them and a knowledge that she was supposed to detest them. She squeezed her eyes shut in aggravation. All she could do was lie there and hope the matter would become simpler.


	4. Understanding

The sun was high in sky, signalling that it was almost noon. The universal time for the midday meal. For most people it was a time to look forward to. When they could take a break from their busy lives to eat and have a casual conversation with their peers. A happy time. However, for Sakura it wasn't a happy occasion at all. Not in any sense of the word. In fact it seemed to be quite the opposite. This was because since it was close to meal time, one of the bastards that had kidnapped her might try to get her to eat with them once again. And she did not want that to happen. Not one bit.

For once in her life Sakura actually thought that it would be better if people were mean instead of nice. If the crew members were mean then this would be a whole lot simpler for her. But they weren't cruel the way kidnappers were supposed to be. They were kind towards her. And that just made her confused.

This was one of the main reasons why she didn't want to eat with them. She didn't know how to react to them or think of them anymore. Because of what they did to her village, she knew that she was supposed to hate them. But it was hard to hate them when they were acting so nice, especially when they couldn't gain anything from being nice. After all, if they were just going to hold her for ransom then they really had no reason to be pleasant to her. And yet they were being nice anyways. It was making the ordeal of not liking them very difficult.

But on the flip side, if she said screw it and decided to get to know them more and be nice back then it would be like saying that what they did to Tora didn't matter. That kidnapping her and destroying many people's lives wasn't significant. Her guilty conscience would not accept that.

The pinkette sighed as she turned her gaze away from the window. She wanted noon to be over so the worry of dining with the pirates would be past her for a short time. It should be over. After all, it felt like it should be nightfall already. But then again, when you were stuck in a small cabin all day, time seemed to drag on.

Sakura looked towards the door. As much as she wanted to stay in the cabin away from the hooligans, staying didn't seem to be very ideal. Especially because the only things the medic could do in here was stare out the window or sleep. She was already sick of them both. So the best solution seemed to be to creep outside to the rest of the ship. Even though her level of detest for the pirates was high, based on their actions earlier today they didn't seem like they would mind her wandering around the ship. Besides, if she got lucky she might not have to see any of them. The ship seemed big enough for that to be possible.

The wooden door creaked slightly as she slowly turned the knob and pushed it open. No one else seemed to be around. Good. Sakura walked out and gently shut the door behind her. Then she remembered that she probably didn't need have to act like she was sneaking out. So the pinkette began to act more casually.

She began to walk aimlessly through the hallway. No particular destination in mind. And no idea of what to do now that she was out here. Hmm, let's see. Maybe practice her fighting skills. No, didn't have a place to do so in. There probably weren't any books that the girl was allowed to read. Wow her options were limited. After a few seconds of thought Sakura realized that there were probably only two things she could do that didn't involve talking to anyone or going back to her room: staring out at the sea on the deck or explore the ship. She chose the latter.

The pinkette started to look around the ship. There wasn't much to see in the hallway that her cabin was in. Well, actually she wasn't too sure if there was or not. This was because she didn't really look inside any of the rooms unless the door was open. Just in case one of the crew members saw her and accused her of snooping or something like that.

Just as Sakura was walking up the main deck she began to notice some of the pirates. Neji and Tenten were there along with Kankurou and Temari. They were all completing various duties that needed to be done on a long vessel such as cleaning the deck, manning the sails and steering the ship. Now that the pinkette thought about it, she realized that this was a rather large ship to be used by pirates. It seemed more like something royalty would use.

Her attention turned back to the crew members. They seemed too absorbed in their current tasks to notice her...or so she thought. Suddenly there seemed to be two small pressures on her leg. She looked down to see Akamaru pressing two of his paws up against her leg to prop himself up so he could look up at her. His small tail was wagging furiously as he panted. At first the pinkette was happy to see him and she knelt down to pet canine. Then she remembered that if Akamaru was here, then Kiba was close by so the Sakura quickly pulled back.

"You should really make up your mind whether you want to pet him or not before you bend down." She had been right. Kiba was coming up beside her, Akamaru walked over to him as he did so. Grinding her jaw in irritation, the pinkette turned so that she was facing the dog boy. "What are you doing out here?" he asked.

She shrugged. Might as well tell him the real reason. Not like she had anything to hide. "Exploring the ship."

"Sweet! I'll give you a tour," he announced in an overly friendly tone. Without giving her time to argue, he took hold of her arm and led her away from the deck. She, currently in a rather confused state of mind, allowed him to do so. Once again his actions puzzled her.

Kiba preceded to her show the great vessel and its many rooms. He took his time explaining each room as they passed by them. When they came to a particular cabin, they simply walked passed it. The brunette explained that he would probably get yelled at for invading people's privacy or something. However, each time they arrived at a different type of room, they walked in and he allowed her to explore. The thought of the ship being too big to be used for pirates returned as they walked in its hallways. It just didn't seem to make sense. The only plausible explanation was that they stole it from royalty. Yeah, that was probably right.

Due to the large size of the ship the tour was about two hours long. Throughout the entire event, Kiba was the only one talking. The pinkette just listened in silence. The weird thing was that Kiba didn't seem to worry about how long the tour took. She concluded that he probably didn't have anything better to do. It made sense. Especially because near the end, he almost seemed to act like he didn't want it to be over. As much as Sakura didn't like the guy (or at least tried to force herself not to like him) she had to admit that the experience was rather enjoyable. In fact, it was almost saddening when it reached its end.

Fortunately afterwards, the pinkette didn't have to worry about having nothing to do. Midday meal started almost exactly when the tour finished. It seemed like a rather late time to have it. Did they purposely wait for Kiba to finish the tour? She hoped they didn't; she didn't want to have yet another reason to feel confused.

* * *

Unlike last time when Sakura arrived at the table, everyone else was already there. After scanning the table, she found that the only available chair was beside Tenten. Great, somehow the pinkette had a feeling that it was placed there for a reason. Suddenly the thought of just standing as she ate didn't seem so bad. However, the pirates would most likely question this action and try to get her to reconsider. Since she'd rather just avoid that ordeal she chose to sit down, making sure she didn't appear to be happy about it as she did so.

"So Sakura." Tenten turned in her chair to face the pinkette almost immediately after she sat down. "In case Kiba forgot to tell or something, I was wondering if you wanted to train with me today."

Sakura sighed. So this was why the empty seat was over here. Tenten had probably saved it with the purpose of asking her this question. Slowly the pinkette turned her body towards the brunette. "Why would I want to train with you?"

Tenten paused, looking as if she hadn't predicted getting asked this question. After thinking it through for a moment, the brunette replied, "Well there's the fact that if you don't then you'll probably be bored out of your mind. Also we didn't really get to have a one on one fight so I want to see what it would be like." When she paused to wait for a response from Sakura but when she didn't get one she continued. "We can both benefit from this. And I would really appreciate it if you said yes."

For a moment Sakura continued to look at her in silence. She had mixed feelings on this. A small part of her wanted to take up this challenge so she could have some more excitement on the ship. Another part of her was confused. Why would the person who helped kidnap her think that the pinkette would want to fight with her? And yet another part of her was disgusted beyond belief. These clashing feelings fought inside of her until it was the disgust that became victorious.

The medic thought of a million things she could say to this. Everything from lectures to angered responses to snappy remarks. However the only word that came out of her mouth was "no." She turned away from Tenten, determined to do so until the end of the meal.

But when she did so, she had to fight the gazes of Temari and Kiba. Judging by their looks, they weren't happy about her decision. Apparently they had also wanted her to train with Tenten. Sakura simply stared back at them for a moment then looked down at the table. In all honestly she was almost beginning to feel guilty about her decision. This baffled the pinkette. What reason could there be to feel guilt for not agreeing to spare with Tenten? Given the current circumstances, she couldn't think of one.

But yet the guilt remained. Tenten might have been looking forward to this. That thought made the guilt grow. Sakura sighed and looked over. "Do you really have nothing better to do this afternoon?"

Tenten looked over and her eyes lit up. "No." That statement was enforced by a violent shaking of her head.

Sakura sighed. "I better not regret this."

"Yes! Thank you." Tenten exclaimed. Then she did something that the medic did not expect. The brunette reached over and placed her arms around the pinkette in a hug. Sakura froze, not sure how to respond. She waited stiffly until Tenten was finished and had returned her arms to her sides. "You won't regret this." Out of the corner of her eye the princess saw Neji offer her a small grateful smile.

Tenten rushed through the rest of her meal and then waited for Sakura to finish hers. It was the first time that the pinkette ever felt like a slow eater. It was also the first time that actually she wanted to eat faster. Even though the brunette tried to appear patient, Sakura could see how Tenten was tapping her fingers and mentally urging the medic to finish the food.

* * *

The second that Sakura finished eating Tenten nearly dragged her over to the main deck and the two began to spar. First they went with weapons, then without. Both of the females were impressed with the other's abilities. The pinkette had to admit that she enjoyed herself when they fought. It was good to get some exercise. Plus, she had to admit that sparring with Tenten was kind of fun.

By the time that the two decided to call it quits they were both soaked with sweat. "You...were...good." Sakura panted.

"Same...to...you." Tenten replied.

For a while neither of them said anything else. They were too focused on catching their breath. When they were finally able to say a full sentence without taking huge gasps of air Tenten looked at Sakura and grinned. "I bet you didn't get sparring like that back in Tora."

Sakura's mood, which had previously been happy, turned sour and her lips quickly formed a frown. Tenten wouldn't know if she sparred like that back home because the only time the brunette went there was when she destroyed it. And now Sakura was fighting with her like they were friends or something. She should feel ashamed of herself.

Sakura silently rushed away from the deck, leaving a brunette looking extremely confused. "Was it something I said?"

* * *

The medic stormed back in her room and slammed the door behind her. How could she have betrayed the people of Tora like that? Those people had left the village in shambles, probably hurt countless people, and didn't even feel regret for it. And she had decided to _spar_ with one of them. She was almost as bad as they were.

Her eyes widened slightly with surprise when she heard knocking, quickly followed by the sound of the door opening. For a second she was thought it was Tenten coming in to ask about why she had run off. She felt relief when she saw that it was Kiba.

The dog boy appeared to be carrying something in with him. It was a bucket filled with water and a washcloth. "Hey." He greeted her as he held up the items that he was holding. "I thought you might want to use this." His nose wrinkled slightly when he neared her. "And no offence, but you kind of need it."

Sakura paused for a moment, unsure about whether to accept it or not. Based on her previous thoughts she should decline the bucket and slam the door in his face. However accepting the bucket didn't necessarily mean that she was getting close to them. Plus she probably did smell disgusting. So she decided to take the bucket. "Thanks."

"Did you have fun sparring?" Kiba asked.

The pinkette frowned. Truthfully she did have fun, but she wasn't supposed to. "Yes." She grumbled in self-hatred.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up over it." Kiba advised her. "There's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself."Sakura could have seriously objected to that statement. However she remained silent and the boy continued to talk. "Tenten really enjoyed it." He told her.

That was interesting. Up until that point she hadn't really thought about the brunette. And for a moment, she almost regretted storming off. Tenten must have felt confused at that moment. Even though she was supposed to hate the pirate, there was a small part of the pinkette was concerned for her.

"Is...she ok?" Sakura asked hesitantly. She wouldn't have voiced this question to anyone else on ship. Even though she didn't trust anyone on the ship, right now Kiba was the closest thing she had to a confidant.

She felt relief when he nodded. "She was a bit confused at first. But she understood." He motioned to the bucket. "You should probably use that now."

The medic nodded. "I probably stink."

"Yeah, you do." He assured her good heartedly. He proceeded to leave the room. But before he did, he looked back at her. "Oh, and don't feel bad about walking away from Tenten. Considering your current circumstances, it's easy to see why you did it." He paused before speaking again. "It must be really hard for you here."

She looked down sadly and nodded. "It is."

He looked as if he really wanted to tell her something. But then the male decided against it. "I'm sorry; I wish that I could make it better for you." Then he walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Sakura stared at the door for a while. What did he want to tell her? Whatever it was, it seemed like he was having a real mental battle about whether to tell her it or not.

Her gaze drifted back to the bucket. Well since she wasn't couldn't figure out what he wanted to say to her, she might as well do something else. Considering that even she could smell how much she stunk, it was probably a good idea to wash herself.

The pinkette had set down the bucket on the middle of the floor and was about to peel off her clothes when the door opened again. She couldn't help but let out a small squeak when Gaara walked in with a bundle of clothes. "Don't you knock?"

The redhead ignored the comment as he eyed her. "You don't smell as bad as Tenten did. She must have worked harder then you did." Sakura didn't answer so he tossed a bundle of clothes at her. "Tenten decided that you wouldn't want to get back into your sweaty clothes so she let you use some of hers until yours get washed."

Sakura caught the bundle and looked at them. That was nice of the brunette. Then she looked up at Gaara suspiciously. "So, why didn't she give them to me?"

"Because she is also currently washing herself and she usually takes a long time to do that. In case you were finished before her, I didn't want to have to smell you walking around in your filthy clothes." He turned and was about to walk out of the room until she called out to him.

"Gaara."

He looked back. "Yes?"

"Thank you for giving them to me."

He grunted in response and left the room without another word.

Once again she looked at the door. There were two acts of kindness involved with giving her the clothes. The first was Tenten feeling considerate enough for the pinkette to let her wear the clothes. That was nice.

The other, more surprising act, was Gaara delivering them to her. He could have chosen to do nothing and make Sakura change back into her sweaty clothes until Tenten was finished washing herself. It could have been easy for him to just avoid her until that happened. But, he didn't do that. The redhead had taken the time and effort to deliver the clothes to her in person. Did that mean that he actually cared about her?

Okay, maybe she shouldn't go _that_ far. But it did show that Gaara actually had a heart.

_A heart that was big enough to give her the clothes but too small to care about destroying a town. _He did not make any sense. And the process of trying to figure him out was giving her a small headache.

Nothing of any significance took place after that. Sakura washed herself and changed into Tenten's clothes. She ate supper with the pirates, star gazed on the deck, and then finally went to bed.

Sakura wasn't as troubled as she had been the night before, however her mind still raced. This time with a different conflict. She would remain forever loyal to Tora, or at least she _wanted_ to remain loyal to Tora. But the kindness of the pirates was making it extremely difficult to do so.

Arg, the medic flipped over on her bed so that she was on her stomach. She didn't know what to do. Why couldn't this be easier? And why did this have to happen to her? These questions stayed with the pinkette until her eyelids dropped and she finally went to sleep.

* * *

**Sorry that this took a while to put up. Arg, it took a while to write. Sakura is having quite the mental conflict isn't she? What do you guys think Kiba wanted to tell Sakura?**

**Please review and tell me how you liked the chapter. **


	5. A strange wake up call

**Hey everyone! So I was looking at this fic and I decided to combine two chapters into one and I edited them both (shocking eh? But at least I managed to control myself and only edit certain parts of the chapters instead of going all out). Anyways I hope you all enjoy it. Please review and tell me what you thought of it when you're done.**

* * *

Sakura woke up to the sound of cannons being shot. She shot up out of her bed. What the heck? She tried to look through the small window in her cabin and found that there was another pirate ship nearby. Great, what a way to wake up in the morning. She tried to see more of the pirate ship but the size of the window only allowed for a very limited view. So she decided to go out of her cabin to see what was happening.

Almost as soon as she stepped out, she was bombarded with noise. People were yelling and gunshots were being fired off. And as she looked around almost all the crew members were fighting with people she didn't recognize. Probably the other pirate crew. She began to look around the ship more, trying to take in more of the scene.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Hinata fighting with a girl with long blonde hair wrapped with a band of yarn. By the looks of it Hinata was obviously losing. She had a deep wound on her arm and the blonde girl had her backed into a corner. Without thinking twice about it Sakura ran over to the two girls to try to help Hinata.

When she was close she grabbed at the blonde girl's arm that was holding a sword. She twisted it back and grabbed the sword, throwing down on the ground afterwards. By then the blonde girl had noticed her, "What the heck?" she asked, turning around. Her face showed obvious pain. She tried to grab Sakura with her free had. With ease Sakura took it in her other hand and then delivered a kick to the girl's side. The girl crouched down and squealed in pain. Sakura proceeded to land a blow to the girl's head, knocking her out almost instantly.

Sakura got up and brushed herself off, "That takes care of that one. I was hoping for more of a fight than that." Then she looked over at Hinata, who appeared to be in shock. "You alright?" she asked.

Hinata appeared to return to reality and quickly said, "I'm fine thanks to you. Thank you."

Sakura gave her a smile, "Your welcome, but you really need that arm bandaged up. Come on, let's get out of here." She took Hinata by the hand and led her to her cabin. Then she shut the door behind her and placed Hinata on the bed.

After looking around she decided to use her bed sheets and use them for bandages. She proceeded to rip off some of the cloth. As she did she asked Hinata, "So what exactly is happening out there?"

Hinata's answer came slowly, "Well, that is Sasuke's crew. They came on because they heard that we had you and they want to get you as well."

Sakura whistled as she took the ripped sheets and wrapped them around Hinata's arm. "I've never been so wanted in all my life. It feels rather odd." Hinata didn't respond so Sakura just continued to wrap the cloth around the wound. When she was done she looked up at Hinata. "All done."

Hinata looked down at her arm and showed a tiny smile, "Thank you. And you should really stay here till this is all done."

Sakura crossed her arms in protest, "But this is all about me. I can't be kept on the sidelines the whole time." She really wanted to go see what was happening, even though her sense of reason told her to do otherwise.

When Hinata looked like she was going to protest Sakura stopped her by raising her hand and saying, "What if I go out but stay hidden the whole time. No problem with that right?"

Hinata gave in, "Alright then." They both left the cabin. As Hinata went to go help out with the fights, Sakura looked around for a hiding place. She saw a few barrels a few steps away and ran and hid behind them. Fortunately she could get completely behind them and she still managed to have a small crack to see out of.

When she looked through it she found that just about everyone was fighting. Hinata was helping Tenten fight a male with dark hair done up in a pony tail so that it resembled a pineapple, Temari was fighting a male that was rather plump (both appeared to be very bored, although for different reasons. Temari looked as if it was a pain to have to fight with the male, and the male just looked like he just didn't want to be there at all), Kiba was fighting with a male with a bowl cut hairstyle and a green jumpsuit with Akamaru barking on the side lines, Kankurou was fighting a male with sunglasses, Neji was fighting intensely with a male with spiky hair and a an orange suit, and the most intense battle of all was between Gaara and a male with spiky black hair. Both of them appeared to be determined to win, and both seemed to have no other thought but the battle.

"I'll ask you again, where is she?" the male with the spiky black hair asked, pausing for a moment.

"Even if I told you Sasuke, that wouldn't matter because you'll never get to her anyways." Gaara replied coldly, lunging at him again with a sword, making their battle continue. So that's the guy they were talking about before.

She noticed a something cold touching her skin and she immediately looked over. Akamaru was beside her, wagging his tail happily. Her eyes opened widely and she tried to shoe him away as quietly as possible. Usually she'd be happy to see him but not under these circumstances.

Unfortunately she was not the only one to notice Akamaru. Sasuke had looked over as well. He stopped fighting with Gaara and spoke up, "Well well well, what do we have here?" Everyone stopped battling and watched as Sasuke began to walk over to her direction. Sakura sighed, knowing that she was discovered. No use in trying to hide now. She slowly got up and looked at him, saying nothing.

"So you're the princess," he said, a hint of amusement in his voice as he studied her figure, "Strange, I thought you'd look more…elegant."

"You would be foolish to judge everyone based on assumptions." she replied coolly. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Gaara looking at her angrily. She knew that if she got out of this she was going to get an earful from him later.

Sasuke chuckled, "That maybe so but this is the first time my assumptions proved to be incorrect." He lifted his hand, as if about to touch her.

Sakura reached out her own hand to grab that wrist of the male. "Don't touch me."

Sasuke's eyebrow rose. "Oh so your feisty princess too? Interesting." He paused for a moment, as if he was contemplating something. Then he looked back casually at his crew. "We'll just leave them be for now and come back later." He looked back at Sakura. "Goodbye for now princess." He and his crew began walking back towards their own ship.

Before he left the ship however, he looked over at Gaara. "We'll be back." Then he left to go on his ship. And soon the ship left, disappearing over the open water.

Sakura watched as the ship left. "Ah yeah! Sakura you were awesome!" Tenten yelled, walking over to Sakura and playfully slapping her on the back.

Sakura laughed, "Why thank you."

"You so kicked butt!" Temari congratulated.

Soon the crew erupted into a show of bragging. "They are so afraid of us now."

"We sure showed them." Kiba exclaimed.

"They'll think twice about facing us again!" Neji stated calmly, although there was a small smile on his face.

Kankurou joined in, rubbing the back of his head as he spoke "Oh my, what a rush! That was-

"Foolish," Gaara interrupted. The crew automatically became silent. "That was foolish of you Sakura. You could have gotten seriously hurt. You should have stayed in your cabin."

Sakura felt her temper rise. "Really?" she asked, eyes flaring up.

Gaara paused and looked over at the crew members. "Leave us to talk alone." He commanded. The crew soon scampered off and Sakura and Gaara were left alone on the main deck. He walked towards her so that he was standing next to her. "You were left sleeping for a reason, you should have stayed in your cabin where it was safe."

"Safe? Umm Gaara, we are on a ship. There's not really a spot that could be called "safe" here. If one of Sasuke's crew got away from the fights, they could have found me in the cabin where I would be all alone and unprotected." Sakura explained, "But if I went out, I would be surrounded by people from your crew, and therefore protected."

Gaara scowled, he didn't like it when people fought with him. "Point taken. However, we held them off. They wouldn't have found you. So it was safer for you to stay put."

"In case you have not realized it yet, safety is not very important to me," Sakura replied, "And the way I see it, it was a good thing I came out. Hinata had a big cut on her arm, and I helped her with it and got her out of her fight. Besides, I hid right after."

"Yes you did help Hinata, and I thank you for that," Gaara admitted, "However, it will still reckless of you. You were very lucky that Sasuke decided to leave. If not-

"If not what?" Sakura interrupted, "I would have been taken by them? Sorry Gaara, but I'm pretty sure that's the same thing you did." Gaara frowned and did not reply, so Sakura continued, "So, in my perspective, leaving with them would be no different than staying here with you. And in that sense, it was perfectly safe for me to venture out of the cabin."

Gaara's gaze darkened. And Sakura was pretty sure that he was trying not to look hurt. "Do you really believe that? Well Sakura, if you were taken there, then Sasuke would no doubt think of you as his personal pet and rape you whenever he felt like it. So do you really think that staying here is the same as being over there?"

Sakura had a loss for words. He seemed really offended. She felt the urge to say something comforting to him. "I guess not, but Gaara. I do not regret coming out. And I do apologize if I worried you. However, if I was put in the same situation, I would do it again. I am not the type to just stay put, especially when I feel like I might be needed, like I was when I saw Hinata fighting that girl."

Gaara sighed, "You… are very annoying." Sakura frowned, she hated being called that. "However," Gaara continued, "You are very kind, and for that I am grateful. But next time something like that happens, please just stay in your cabin."

Sakura raised an eyebrow and had to try very hard not to argue even more with him. But she knew that if she argued, it would be pretty much pointless at this point. So instead she replied, "If something does happen in the future and I know that I am not needed, I will stay." Sakura replied.

Just when she finished she heard a barrel fall over. And when it did Temari stumbled out of it. "Hehehe," she said slowly, her face turning red.

"Temari," Gaara said, annoyance clearly in his voice.

"Sorry, couldn't resist," Temari said. Then, to change the subject she said, "But I'm pretty sure that breakfast is ready now."

Gaara rolled his eyes; he was used to his sister being like this. "Very well, I think we are finished talking now. We shall go," he said, taking one look at Sakura before walking away.

Sakura walked behind Gaara. Temari quickly ran up to her, "Nice going," she whispered to Sakura, "I really think he cares about you."

Sakura glanced over at Temari. He cared about her? Really? Wait…why did she feel excited about that? It wasn't like he meant a lot to her or anything… "Sakura, you ok?" Temari asked, "You seem quiet."

Sakura quickly regained her composure, "Oh, I'm fine. Just thinking about what had happened."

They reached the table where everyone was sitting at and Sakura chose a spot near Kiba while Temari sat closer to Kankurou. Akamaru quickly bounded up to Sakura with his tail wagging, and Sakura happily pet him. "Hey thanks for not getting mad at him for, you know," Kiba told her.

Sakura looked at him and shrugged, "Hey no biggie, after all no one got really hurt. And that's all that matters. Besides, I don't think I could stay mad at this little guy." She continued to pet the top of his back. Akamaru barked happily in response.

"So Sakura," Tenten began, "About that training thing. I was kinda hoping we could do it today."

Sakura gave out a small laugh, "You really don't give up easily," she mumbled before looking over at Tenten and saying, "Sure. Got nothing better to do anyways." After hearing Tenten's sequel in response, Sakura added, "For future reference, who exactly were those people in Sasuke's crew?"

Like Sakura expected, Tenten was the one to reply, "Well, the one Hinata was fighting was a girl named Ino. I was fighting a guy named Shikamaru; he's lazy but he is a very good fighter. Temari was fighting a rather chubby guy named Choji. Kiba was fighting a very excited guy named Lee. Kankurou was fighting a guy with sunglasses named Shino. Neji was fighting a guy named Naruto. And finally, if you have not guessed it yet Gaara was fighting Sasuke."

"Wow, that is a lot of people to remember," Sakura stated when Tenten finished.

Tenten nodded, "Yes, but when they come after you running with a sword, you tend to remember them pretty quickly."

"Touché," replied Sakura, "And why exactly do you hate them?"

The table went silent and many of the crew member's eyes widened. For a while no one spoke and some of them appeared to be trying to think of a response. After a few more moments Gaara spoke. "He's always been our enemy. Ever since we were born we have always been fighting each other."

Sakura's eyebrow rose and she noticed how vague his statement was. Was he trying to hide something?

Whatever it was, he seemed to be pretty determined to keep it secret. And considering that she was still their hostage and he was probably still mad at her, she probably shouldn't pry. "Oh..." she replied.

For a while no one said anything until Kiba spoke up. "Sakura tell us about your life before you got, you know, captured."

So for the rest of breakfast Sakura told them about Blackfire and her life helping out at the hospital.

Sakura and Tenten were both sweating like crazy. They had been sparring both empty handed, and with weapons for about two hours now. And they had finally decided to stop, doing what their bodies were begging them to do an hour ago. "That was…pretty…good," Tenten managed to say over her heavy breathing.

"Same…to…you," Sakura replied.

"Tenten, can you come help me?" Neji's voice asked from a small distance away.

Tenten immediately perked up, as if she wasn't all that tired any more. "Coming." She yelled back, then turning towards Sakura before saying, "See ya."

Sakura leaned back on the side of the ship, wondering what she should do next. After all she didn't have a lot of options. Sleeping was boring. She didn't want to get in anyone's way so that ruled out striking a conversation with someone. And she couldn't really help out with anything. So she decided to just look out at the open water, hoping that time would pass by quickly.

After what felt like a very long time it was lunch. And while everyone was finishing up, Sakura took the opportunity to go up and ask Gaara for something to do. "Gaara," she began.

Gaara looked over at her, "Yes?"

"I was wondering, is there anything I could do? I mean, staring out at the water is fun and all, but is does get rather dull very quickly." she told him.

Gaara paused for a moment before answering. "I am sorry but I did not think of ways you could pass the time. I have been busy controlling a ship. So unless you want to just look at maps you can find-

"Sure," Sakura interrupted. Looking at maps was better than nothing.

Gaara looked surprised. "Alright," he replied, "Come see me later."

So after lunch was over and she helped Hinata clean up the dishes, she went over to see Gaara. He was in a large office room, full of scrolls and documents. "So…," she began, "Where are the maps?"

He pointed towards a corner of the room where there was a small table with a chair next to it. On the table was a bunch of maps. "Read them in here," he instructed. And Sakura had a feeling that the reason he said to do so was not because he wanted her near, but because he didn't want the maps to leave his office.

So she went over silently and sat down. Then she took out a map, and began reading it. It was a map of the continent where her homeland, the place where her parents lived, was. Sakura grinned and began to get excited. She wanted to know as much about the place as possible. Soon she was absorbed by the maps, trying to take in as much information as possible.


	6. the raid

**Sorry for the long wait. Hope I didn't annoy anyone too much. Please read and review.**

* * *

"Sakura, Sakura come on." Gaara urged, nudging Sakura slightly to get her attention.

Grudgingly, Sakura obeyed. She had been absorbed in the maps, almost to the point of being in a trance. She resented being interrupted from her readings.

"What?" she asked him.

"It's time for dinner." He replied, obviously annoyed to have to bother with the task of informing a captive about a meal. Despite her rank on land, he was the superior on his ship. Such tedious things were below him.

She nodded and sighed, not wanting to take a break from the maps. Hesitantly, she got up from her seat and glanced back towards the maps.

"Will I be able to look at them again later?"

He simply shrugged, "Possibly," then walked out of the cabin. Despite lack of obvious invitation, she trudged along behind him.

As they walked to where everyone was seated, Sakura sensed a note of excitement in the air from the people sitting down. Naturally, she inquired about it.

Temari was the first to blurt out, "We're going on a raid tomorrow!"

"It's going to be really fun!" Tenten added in.

Sakura frowned. She knew what a raid was. And she detested them. How someone could enjoy stealing and hurting unsuspecting innocent people was beyond her understanding. And apparently Tenten noticed this. "Aww come Sakura, its loads of fun."

Gaara spoke before Sakura could start objecting to the idea of a "fun raid"

"It doesn't matter; she won't be joining us anyways."

"What?!" exclaimed Tenten.

"She's a captive," Gaara explained, exasperated by his crew's obliviousness to this obvious fact, "Having her involved in a raid would be foolish. It would leave too many opportunities for escape. Instead, she will stay here guarded by one of us."

"Who will be guarding her?" Temari spoke out, ignoring Tenten's protests. Sakura remained silent, slowly eating away at the food in front of her.

Gaara's response was immediate. "Kiba."

There were slight murmurs and whispers around the table. Sakura turned her gaze towards Kiba, who might have looked grateful. She looked down at her plate and saw that she had eaten all her food. Without bothering to put her plate away, she stood up and looked at Gaara. "For one thing, I know it's stupid to try to escape with everyone so close by. Secondly, I never wanted to go on your little stealing trip anyway. I'd rather not act like a savage thank you very much." With that, she walked away before Gaara was able to get the last word in.

She walked into her cabin, intending on spending the rest of the night inside of it. After slamming the door behind her, she plopped down on her bed. She wasn't sure as to why she felt so angered by the conversation. Maybe it was because, even though she didn't like what it was about, she didn't like the idea of not having a say in her own affairs. Or maybe it was that Gaara barely trusted her (she really doubted this idea). Probably just the idea of the raid in general. Maybe a mixture of all three, she really didn't know. But the bottom line was that she was in a real rotten mood.

Just when she was about to roll over onto her pillows, she heard her door open and looked up. It was Gaara. "That was a very childish tantrum you pulled back there."

Sakura glared, still too frustrated to just take the insult. "Well you have a very strange definition of a tantrum; I was just standing up for myself. Besides, this is coming from the person who came here just to get in the last word."

It was Gaara's turn to glare. "At least I know what my place is on this ship." He left immediately after his comment.

Now even more pissed off, Sakura let out a groan and flipped over so that her stomach was on the bed. She stayed on the confinements of the bed for the rest of the night.

* * *

When she awoke morning light was shining through her small window and fell partially on her face. With a small grunt, she rolled over so that she didn't see any of the light. She was in no rush to get up early this morning. Besides, it was nice to sleep in once in a while. She pulled the covers up to her nose and got as comfortable as she could. Then, with a small smile of content on her face, she allowed sleep to take over once again.

She didn't know how long she slept in till. But after a long while she heard the door open. "Sakura? You awake?" a voice asked.

Sakura yawned and sat up on her bed. "Now I am Kiba."

"Good, because I was getting lonely out here by myself." He explained to her, leaning on her door, "Everyone else left for the raid."

She sighed and nodded. "Give me five minutes." He nodded and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Five minutes later she walked out onto the deck and saw that they were near a long beach. And across that beach there was a city. It didn't look too big, but it looked large enough so that there would be people with lots of money inside of it. She frowned as she thought of what was probably going on inside of it. As if confirming her belief, she heard a few screams and other loud noises coming from the area. If she squinted, she could see the outlines of people running away from people with swords.

"It's best if you don't look at it." Kiba explained to her. She looked over at him as he held out a plate of food for her. She took it as he continued. "Honestly, I'm glad Gaara instructed me to stay here. I hate doing raids." Akamaru, who was seated on Kiba's shoulder, barked in agreement.

"Really?" Sakura asked before she took a bite of an apple.

Kiba nodded. "Strange I know. I just don't like how we cause so much pain to other people so thoughtlessly. But it seems like I'm the only of us who feels like that. Everyone else seems to enjoy it. Heck even Hinata sometimes gets in on it. I usually try to find some excuse to stay behind."

"Oh wow." She replied as she swallowed her bite of apple. "Well, if it's any help, I'm glad you don't like it."

He grinned, "Thanks." The two talked until Hinata came up from a small boat used to get to shore and started to run towards the ship.

"Kiba....we...need...you....out...there...Gaara...injured...needs...be...brought...back to ship." Hinata explained in between pants.

He automatically stood up straight and nodded. "Ok." He turned towards Sakura, "Be right back." Then he took off towards the smaller boat, with Hinata trailing behind him.

Sakura's eyebrows furrowed together as she watched them leave. So she was alone then. And since everyone was probably trying to help Gaara...maybe she could escape. There was a chance she could slip away with no one noticing. There was an extra boat she could take to farther down the beach. She could run to the other side of the town. Then she could be free.

Should she do it? She needed to weigh the pros and cons. The pro was obviously freedom. But the cons were that she had no idea where they were, which would probably result in her getting lost or kidnapped. And maybe if she stayed she could persuade the pirates to not to try to use her to get that gem thing. Sure that may seem difficult, but maybe it was possible. She could try to convince some of them anyways. And there was also the fact that they would probably just try to hunt her down again if she tried to escape. Also, even though the thought made her cringe a bit inside, she was starting to like them.

She reached her final decision; she would stay. She gazed out to the ocean. She had better not regret this. As she stared she saw two of the small boats coming back. They had all the pirate crew inside of them. When they came closer she saw that Gaara was lying down on one of them unconscious.

The moment the boats came closer to the ship people ran up to help get Gaara on the deck. They laid him down on the deck and rushed around him. She heard them all yell out things, trying to figure out what to do to help him. Then, Temari rushed over to her with urgency. Panic was evident in her eyes, "Can you help him?" She pleaded.

Sakura's lips formed a tight line. "Why would I help him?" She asked.

"Please. I know he caused you hurt and all that. But I really need you to help him. You're the one here who would do the best for him. Please." Temari pleaded once again. "If you don't...he might bleed out."

Sakura felt torn. One the one hand it would be stupid to help him. It was his fault she was captured after all. And he's been really rude to her ever since she came. If she was the one hurt, she doubted he would help her. But, on the other hand, she was a medic. And it was her duty as such to help whoever needed it, no matter who it was. Besides, if she didn't, her conscience would never let her live it down. She nodded at Temari, "Alright, I'll help him."

The two rushed over towards him and now that her sight wasn't blocked by people, she saw that he had a huge gash on his chest. "Someone stabbed him during the raid." Temari explained with hatred, "They did it from behind, the cowards."

Sakura had to bite her tongue in order to not lash out on Temari. There would be time to lecture the blond later. For now she would help Gaara. She barked out orders to the others and began to help him.

An hour later she sat up and wiped the sweat on her forehead. "He should be alright now."

Everyone yelled out in happiness. Temari and Kankuro both ran up and hugged her. "Thank you!" They both exclaimed at once.

Sakura looked at them. "You should probably put him on an actual bed now. He needs to rest for at least the rest of the day, if not more." The two nodded and carried Gaara off. "One more thing," Sakura called to them. They stopped and looked at her. "Don't ask me to do it again."


	7. the search

**Hey everyone. Here's a new chapter. Hope you all enjoy it. Oh, and before I forget to add it like I usually do: I don't and will never own Naruto**

* * *

The pair blinked at her and both wanted to ask her about her statement. However, they quickly and unanimously decided that their brother's well being was more important. So they, with their brother in hand, quickly shuffled off to Gaara's cabin. Sakura watched them until they disappeared into a room, hoping that she would not later regret healing him.

"Thanks Sakura!" Tenten happily told the medic, breaking her train of thought. The brunette was now standing beside Sakura, a huge smile plastered on her face. "I don't even want to think about what would have happened if you didn't help." As she was talking her mood seemed to darken. "Those cowards, what they did to him. It just makes my blood boil."

Sakura swiftly turned to face Tenten, her eyes flashing as she did so. "Those _people_ were simply trying to protect themselves from you. You came into their homes and started attacking them and robbing them. What did you expect them to do, _just stand there and watch_? Obviously they would attack any way they could, you'd do the exact same."

The pinkette had to stop in her speech a take a deep breath. Now, calmer than before, she continued. "I know you that already know that what you did was wrong, and that you know that the people that gave Gaara that wound were more in the right than you were. Even if you chose to believe differently. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I'm alright with that. However, stop talking to me about how great raids are. And don't ever tell me how some innocent person defending themselves against you is cowardly."

The brunette looked at her with the same look that Kiba had given her earlier; the 'I really want to tell you something' look. Before she could respond, Sakura walked away towards her small cabin, shutting the door behind her. She pounced onto her bed and screamed into her pillow. These people were very difficult to befriend. Just when she had begun to like these people, they decided to go on a raid and ruin everything again. It was almost like they were trying to make her hate them or something.

And what the heck were they hiding from her? She could see how sometimes they looked as if they wanted to tell her something, only to decide against it at the last moment. What was so important that they couldn't tell her? And why did they want to tell her about it so badly? Arg, none of this was making any sense. She wasn't sure how long she could take this confusion and conflict before she burst.

That's when an idea came to her. If they weren't going to tell her what was so important, perhaps the medic could find out on her own. She would search the ship. See if anything on it could give her answers. And perhaps she could eavesdrop on a conversation or two.

A small smile surfaced on her face at thought of finding or hearing something that could help her with her problem. Her mind began to fill with ideas for her new plan. Sakura was so focused on her plan that when the door opened she almost felt like a kid getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. But then she remembered that whoever it was couldn't possibly know what she was thinking and she calmed down. So she simply turned over and sat up on the bed, ready to see whoever it was that entered the room.

The person at the door turned out to be Temari. "Sakura." She began, "I want to thank you again for healing Gaara. Especially because I know how you feel about him- and the rest of us. I know you probably hated doing it, and although I'm not sure why you did it, I'm sure it wasn't easy for you to decide. So, thank you." With that Temari walked out of the room, not even waiting for a response.

Sakura watched the door shut then stared at it for a few moments. Was there anyone else going to come in? After deciding that no one else was coming in she slumped down once more. It was surprising to see that the great Temari actually had a soft, caring side to her. What next? Find out that Kiba was really a cat person? Ok, she highly doubted that one but on a more serious note, the people here seemed more complex then what she had first thought.

She focused her thoughts back on her plan of sneaking around the ship. So before Temari had walked in, she had planned that she would wait until everyone had gone to sleep, then sneak around the ship looking for clues. If she couldn't find any, then the next day when everyone was around the ship, she would sneak into their rooms.

Was there anything she could really add to that? Not really. Unless she wanted to choose which rooms to go to first. And that wouldn't take very long. In fact, she could probably do that while she was looking around. So really there was nothing left for her to do until that night.

So that left the question of what to do now. Within a few seconds, Sakura was given her answer when she heard footsteps walking towards her cabin. Sakura sat on her bed in complete silence until she heard footsteps coming closer to her cabin. But as she listened, she heard them pass by her cabin. Considering the fact that she was planning on eavesdropping later anyways, she decided to go investigate. She crept out of the cabin and saw Temari talking to Neji. Before either of the two could see her she hid behind a few pieces of cargo that were close to her cabin so if she needed to make a breakaway to it she could. The pinkette knelt down and listened to them.

"How is Gaara?" Neji asked.

"He's stabilizing. Thanks to Sakura he should be on his feet by tomorrow." Temari replied. "So, when we were on the raid did you drop off the message or do we have to go back?"

"I sent it." Neji replied. "We're still on schedule."

"Gaara will be happy to know that." Temari replied. "Now we can proceed to the Heilig palace. It's a good thing too." She added. "I hate going on raids. I'm glad that we don't have to go on them anymore."

"All of us are." Neji replied.

With that they said their goodbyes, then both went their separate ways on the ship. As soon as she thought the coast was clear, Sakura raced back towards her cabin and shut the door behind her. She leaned back on her door, her heart going a mile a minute.

At first she had just thought this was just a cliché raid, where they go in to vandalise and all they take is money. But apparently it was anything but that. Apparently the point was to send a message. In fact Temari and Neji had just admitted to not liking raids. Then why go on one? Why not just send the message without going to all that trouble? And why was this message so important anyways?

She slumped down so that she was sitting down, her back rested on the door. Listening in on their conversations was supposed to ease her confusion, not make it worse. The pinkette could only hope that tonight things she would be more successful.

What was so different about this place? Where was this place? Gosh, she didn't even know what the place was called. And, the worst part was that, with all these questions, she had no way of finding out the answers.

* * *

It felt like Sakura had to wait forever for the night to come. She had spent the remainder of the day in her room, pretending to be sulking about what had happened earlier that day. After shovelling down her food she went straight back to her room and tried immediately tried to get some sleep. It would be about six hours until she could be certain that everyone else was sleeping. Unfortunately Sakura only managed to get about an hour's worth of rest which meant that she was wide awake twiddling her thumbs for the remaining five hours.

When the time finally came to get up she hurriedly got up and crept out of her cabin. Hmm, where to start. Well she could go to the rooms closest to her cabin first then gradually go farther. However starting at the other end of the ship and working back to her room could work too. Sakura chose the latter.

She glided as quietly as possible to the other side of the large boat. A little bit of guilt rose up inside of her as she did so. They had been kind to her lately. And here she was sneaking around behind her backs. It almost felt like she was betraying them or something.

The princess tried to shove this feeling away by thinking of all the bad things that the pirates did. Kidnap her, destroy Tora, go on a raid just to send a message. That helped ease her remorse quite a bit. And the knowledge that snooping around might help her stop feeling confused wiped out all remaining guilt.

Sakura reached the end of the ship about a minute later and she began to automatically walk towards the first room that she saw. However, just as she was about to walk into it she heard a loud snore being emitted from the room and jumped away from the door like it was on fire. Ok, maybe she shouldn't go into that room. And it would probably be smart to think about what room she's going before she enters from now on.

The first few rooms that she did visit brought up next to no answers. There were no scrolls, no maps, or anything else that she could use. The pinkette couldn't even find any clues after she had spent a good twenty minutes searching each room. It was quite disappointing.

The next room she looked in didn't give show any clues either (unless you call finding the place where Akamaru kept his bones a clue). It was the fifth room that the medic had searched. And by this point she was starting to get quite frustrated. She was also beginning to feel an urge to just give up and go back to sleep in her room.

Fortunately for her, she was able to find something interesting in the next room she looked in. It looked like some sort of meeting room. Its main features were a long table, quite a few chairs and a small world map up on a wall. Sakura had searched the place vigorously but was unable to find anything of use. That is, until out of the corner of her eyes she saw a small bottle on a ledge near the end of the room.

Upon looking at it she saw that it was a medicine bottle. A brown bottle with a small label on the front. Since the medic lived by the ocean, she was quite used to treating people with seasickness. And that was why she recognized the type of medicine almost immediately. It was a medication that she herself used for people who could not easily adapt to the turnings and motions of a boat at sea. The was a small note at the back of the bottle _drink only when necessary, and by necessary I mean less than three times everyday Kankurou. _

This was odd. Why would pirates, people who spend their entire lives on the ocean, need medicine for seasickness? True they could have brought the bottle for her in case they thought that she wouldn't be able to handle the waves, but then why have the note at the back?

She found more strange clues as she continued her search. There was a letter from a girl wishing Kankurou luck on his mission. Why would anyone wish a pirate luck? Especially on a 'mission' that included kidnapping someone, destroying a town, and blackmailing royalty? Sakura found another letter like this addressed to Kiba, saying that a lot of people were counting on them. Why would someone be counting on them?

Sakura came to her final stop on her search. Hopefully this would help ease her confusion instead of increasing it like the rest of her search did. Her small hand reached out, grabbed the knob on the door, and slowly began to open it when she heard heavy breathing coming from inside the room. The medic froze. Oh crap! This was Gaara's room. If he found out that she was snooping around the ship...she didn't even want to think about it.

The best things to do in this situation were probably to shut the door, sneak back into her cabin, and attempt to get some sleep. But if she was thinking about the best things to do, then she wouldn't be out here in the first place. She could just sneak back into her cabin after this. And she highly doubted that she would be getting any sleep tonight.

Besides, with the injury that Gaara had, he would probably be out of it for a while. So she decided to slowly open the door more and walk inside.

The first thing the pinkette noticed was how bare the room was. There were no personal items or things that showed Gaara's personality anywhere. No pictures, no notes, nothing. The entire room was made up of a bed (which the redhead was currently sleeping in), a dresser and a small desk. The guy must not like decorating very much.

Considering the fact that there obviously weren't going to be any clues anywhere else in the room, Sakura went over to the desk. On the top there were only some pens, a book of maps, and a stack of paper. Her gaze traveled down and she saw that the desk contained some drawers. However, when she tried to open them, she saw that they were all locked. Great.

Her emerald gaze moved around as she tried to look for the key in the darkness of the room. It had to be here somewhere. As she was looking, she moved her arm and her elbow hit the book of maps, causing it to fall over onto the floor in a very loud thump.

Sakura's eyes widened and, without a second thought, she leapt as silently as possible to the other side of the desk and knelt down, hoping that Gaara wouldn't see her. However she was surprised once again when she was met with the sound of the redhead's heavy breathing. How could he still be sleeping? Sure she was glad and extremely grateful that he was, but at the same time it baffled her. Even a heavy sleeper should have woken up from that sound.

The pinkette took the dropping of the book as a sign to end her little escapade. So she quietly placed the book back onto the desk, and then went back to her own cabin. It was at that moment that she finally realized that her cabin was quite close to Gaara's. Was there a reason for that? Hmm, maybe because he didn't trust her and wanted to be able to watch over her closely. As much as she didn't like that idea, it did make sense.

With that Sakura shut her door and crawled into her covers. When she lay comfortably underneath them, she thought with disappointment about her search. Not only did it not help her ease her confusion, but it was counterproductive and only increased her stress.

Now she wasn't even sure if she should continue her search tomorrow. Not if she received the same results that she had tonight.

Maybe she should just give up the search entirely and just act like they were normal pirates. Sakura scratched that idea almost as soon as she thought of it. Considering how bewildered she was now, even if she wanted to try and forget about her confusion, she wouldn't be able to do so.

The pinkette yawned and brought up a hand to cover it. For the first time that night feelings of sleepiness were starting to form. Maybe because she had been running on adrenaline for much of her search. She snuggled deeper inside her bed and shut her eyes. She'd think more about what to do next in the morning. Apperently Sakura was incorrect before; she did sleep that night.

* * *

**So what do you guys think the pirates are hiding from dear Sakura? Place your ideas in a review and I'll let you know if you're close. Bye now**


	8. Anger and escape

A stream of sunlight coming in from the window woke Sakura up from her slumber. After blinking a few times, she stretched and got up from her bed. Her eyes trailed to the window. The sun was already high. Must be around midday. Wow she slept in a lot. But considering how late she must have stayed up last night searching the ship, it made sense that she wouldn't wake up until later in the day.

She strode out of her room and onto the deck. There was no one there. Strange. Maybe they were eating right now. The pinkette walked away from the deck towards the dining hall. Sure enough, the crew members were there eating their midday meal. "Hey there sleepy head." Kiba said jokingly to her as she walked in.

His comment made everyone else look over at her. "Look who decided to finally wake up." Temari told her.

Sakura shrugged as she walked up to the table. "I didn't fall asleep until really late last night." That was truthful enough.

"We were considering splashing water on your face." Tenten added in.

The medic was suddenly filled with memories of Tayo. "Please don't." She said sadly as she sat down.

Tenten looked confused. "What do I keep saying that makes you upset?"

"Just forget it." Sakura replied, sitting down. She grabbed a fruit, trying to ignore the crew's stares as she did so. It was at that moment did she realize that there was still one empty chair at the table. "Where's Gaara?"

"Still sleeping." Temari told her, taking a bite of a piece of chicken.

The pinkette's eyebrow rose. "Still?" Temari nodded. She frowned. The redhead should have at least stirred by now. She decided to check on him after she was finished eating.

* * *

This time she didn't feel cautious when she walked into Gaara's room, she just felt worried. She walked over to him and studied the pirate leader. Confusion overtook her when she was finished. He was in worse condition than before. His breathing was haggard and he was boiling over. This didn't make any sense. He should be getting better, not getting worse. Was something else wrong with him?

The medic looked him over again to see if there was anything that she missed before. After inspecting him, she found that she had missed something the first time she checked. On his left heel there was a miniscule snake bite surrounded by a small rash. The wound was so small that if one wasn't specifically looking for something out of the ordinary, they would miss it. That would explain why he looked sick.

Come to think of it, the bite mark looked somewhat familiar. Where had she seen something like that before? Sakura thought for a few moments before finally remembering. She had seen this kind of bite mark back home. People who had it shown identical symptoms.

It was a snake bite. The snake, called a Vibra was native to her homeland. And unfortunately, those bitten by the snake usually died if they weren't treated with the antidote. Her gaze drifted up at Gaara. She didn't want him to die.

_But if he died, she'd have a better chance of escaping_; a part of her reminded her. _And he did kidnap her and destroyed much of Tora. _That was true. But after being here and living with him and the other pirates, she had discovered good qualities about them. She possibly even liked them. Sure, what they did was horrible, and she wasn't sure if she could ever forgive them for what they did.

However, they did appear to be good people and they definetly did not deserve to die. They could have treated her like dirt and kept her locked up in her room. Instead they were kind to her, gave her a tour of the ship, and even allowed her to eat with them.

Besides, Sakura was a medic. As such she needed to heal all who needed it; she could not simply pick and choose who to save. If someone was dying, she needed to help them. Period.

So Sakura decided that she would help Gaara. But how? Well, if she remembered correctly there was an antidote that Tayo kept in their home in case either of them ever got bit by a snake. That meant that she needed to go back home to Tora to get it. But would the pirates let her do that?

The medic stood up. Well, there was only one way to find out. She strode out of the room to go find the others.

She found Temari and Neji on the deck, deep in conversation. They both looked up when Sakura arrived. "Hi Sakura." Temari greeted. "We're kind of busy right now. Would you mind-"

"Gaara's sick." Sakura interrupted. "Sicker then what I thought earlier."

The colour drained from Temari's face. "What?"

"After looking him over I discovered a snake bite. I recognized it and his symptoms. There have been similar snake bites in my homeland. People die from them if they're not given an antidote." She explained. "There's an antidote back in Tora. We need to go back so that I can find it and give him some before its too late."

Neji and Temari were both silent. "Well?" The pinkette asked after a few seconds had gone by. "Are we going or what?"

"Sakura." Temari replied doubtfully. "Let me get this straight. You're saying that Gaara got bitten by a snake and we never noticed it. And the antidote just _happens_ to be back in Tora, the place you're from and probably really want to go back to."

Sakura looked at her in disbelief. "Are you implying that I'm making this up so that I can go back home?"

"It is rather convenient that the antidote is back in your homeland." Neji spoke up. "And you informed us before when you healed him that he would be fine."

"But I looked at him again and I know now that I was wrong before." The pinkette protested, not believing her ears. How could they think that she was lying about this?

"Sorry Sakura." Temari said. "But it seems rather too convenient for you. I'm actually surprised that would stoop so low as to use Gaara as a means to return home. We're not going to Tora."

"But-"

"My decision is final." Temari announced to her.

Sakura glared at her and stomped away back to her room. She shut her door when she arrived and collapsed angrily upon her bed. How dare they think that she was making this up! Yes, she did admit that it probably did look a little odd that the antidote was in Tora and that she had predicted earlier that Gaara would be alright. But she wouldn't lie about something like this!

You know what? If they didn't believe her, fine. She'd help him on her own.

_Really?_ A voice in her mocked. _And how are you going to do that?_ Good question. Too bad she didn't have an answer.

Think Sakura, think. Hmm, well she'd need to find a way to get off the boat first. And find a way to get to shore. Considering the distance, swimming back was out of the question. They did have that small boat that they used to go on raids. The ship didn't really move all that much since the raid, so she could potentially get back to shore, even though it might take a good deal of time.

From there she could probably try and find her way back to Tora. Once again, it would probably take a long time. Maybe months. The good thing was that the poison from the bite took a while to fully act on the body, so she could make it, if only just.

Well now she had a way to land. But how the heck was she going to find her way back? And how would she know where to find the group afterwards? After all, if they didn't have her they probably wouldn't go to Heilig since without her they had nothing to bargain with.

She could check Gaara's desk. But wait, she would need a key for that. Where would that be? Goodness, it felt like she was playing twenty questions with herself.

Alright Sakura, think. If she were a key to Gaara's desk where would she be? Possibly still in his office? She had already been in the office, but she still hadn't checked the dresser. Maybe it was there.

Not wanting to wait for nightfal again, the pinkette decided to go and search the place now. After all, the others probably wouldn't have a need to go into the space.

Sakura crept out of her room and went towards Gaara's office. Fortunately, she didn't pass by anyone else on her way. His door was shut, so she quietly opened the door, walked in, and shut it behind her.

Now, where to start looking. She doubted that it would be in any open area, especially after she had already tried looking a little for it last night. So that meant that it was either on the desk, which she had already tried looking around, in the dresser, or somewhere on the bed with Gaara. With that thought she looked over at the sleeping redhead. His breathing seemed almost worse than before, not good.

After a moment of thought, the pinkette decided to check the large dresser first. She went towards it and checked the first drawer. Nothing. Just clothes. The search of the second drawer produced the same results as the search of the first. As well as the search of the third and fourth drawers. She was starting to feel a little discouraged when she was about to try the fifth and final drawer. Then she heard footsteps coming towards the door and froze. She looked around the room, then went in the only hiding spot she could find: behind the dresser.

Almost as soon as she was in place the door swung open. "So you think that that letter is in Gaara's desk?" a voice asked.

"Yes Kankurou." Temari replied. "I'm sure of it. In a way, it's good that Gaara's sleeping, he always hated us looking in his desk."

"So pinky said that Gaara was getting sicker." Kankurou spoke out.

"Yes Kankurou, Sakura told me and Neji that he was poisoned or something." Temari replied. Sakura heard a lock click followed by the sound of shuffling papers. So Temari had a key.

"Hmm." He replied. "Gaara doesn't look too bad; she probably just wants to go back to that worn down village."

"That's what I thought." She replied. "I'm surprised that Sakura would lie like that, but I guess she really loves her home."

"And even if she was somewhat telling the truth, they'd likely have a remedy for him back in Suna."

"Most likely."

"So we're still going on schedule?" Kankurou asked.

"Yes." Temari replied. "Our task is too urgent to delay. Gaara would want us to continue." The paper shuffling stopped. "Ha." the blond announced. "Told you it was in here." The drawer was slammed shut and there was another lock click. With that Sakura heard the footsteps leave the room and the door shut behind him.

Sakura waited a few more moments before slowly getting up out of her hiding spot. Well now she didn't have to look for the key, she already knew where they'd be after this, Suna. With her mission now complete, she began to walk out of the room only to stop when she passed by Gaara's desk. Maybe she should take a few maps with her just in case.

So she turned to his book of maps and took out a few pages. Hopefully they wouldn't need these. She took the items, folded them, and placed them in the waist strap of her breeches, then made sure her shirt covered the area.

* * *

Night fall took a long time to come that night. Almost as long as the night before. She managed to get a few hours of sleep in the afternoon so she wasn't that tired when she snuck out of her cabin after waiting for everyone else to fall asleep.

The ship was silent as she made her way to the small boat. As she did she almost felt guilt for what she was doing. That was strange. Why would she feel guilt? Considering the fact that she had been kidnapped by the pirates, she wasn't really doing anything wrong. Plus she was actually helping them.

The boat was where she had expected it to be. She pushed it off into the water, jumped on, and rowed away. Despite the fact that the pinkette knew that she would see the group again, she found herself wishing that she could say goodbye to the pirates. Especially to Kiba, Temari and Tenten. And, well, Gaara too. Even though he was colder and more hostile then the rest of them seemed to be. There was something about him that she liked. And she knew that somewhere under that rude exterior, the redhead had some kindness in him. He just didn't seem to like showing it.

The ship started to seem smaller as she rowed away towards the shore. She hoped that she would be able to find the antidote and get back to them soon. It was almost funny to think that when she first came on the ship, she would have been glad that Gaara was poisoned. Now she was escaping just so she could find medicine to help him. Strange how things worked out.

Yes there was still a part that wondered why the heck she was doing this. But she told that part that she was a medic, she needed to help everyone who needed it. She didn't have a choice.

* * *

**Hey everyone! Hope you liked this chapter. Please review and tell me what you thought of it. Also I have a poll up on my profile, if you have a moment, please go and look at it. Thanks. **


	9. help

**Hey everyone! Sorry for the late update, once again I blame university. A little note about this chapter, I introduce some of the members of the Akatsuki, and I have actually never seen them on the show before. And since, at the time when I wrote this I didn't really have time to research much into their personalities, I based them off what I've seen in other fanfics. So I apologize ahead of time if they seem ooc. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed thus far! **

* * *

The sky was dark when Sakura finally arrived in Tora. It had taken her quite a long time to get to the town. She had spent many days traveling. A sigh escaped her as she saw the buildings. From what she could see, restorations had already begun to take place. She wanted to look around and see all the things being done, or at least take a breather considering the fact that she had been traveling almost none stop the entire day, but she had come here to get an antidote and right now that was her main objective.

No one else was in the streets. That was probably for the best. If someone saw her they would probably come up to her and try to convince her to stay. She was already tempted as it was. It would be so nice to just forget about the pirates and just stay here. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to give up on getting the medicine and remain in Tora.

But she knew that she shouldn't do that. Gaara was dying and without the antidote, it was almost a guarantee that he would not live. And despite the fact that he could be rather rude, insensitive and just plain mean, she was not going to let him die.

A nearby voice made Sakura freeze. "Hi, Armen." This was not good; she searched wildly around her until she saw a few barrels that she could hide behind. The pinkette slipped behind them as another voice joined the first.

"Hey, has there been any news recently?"

The first person spoke up. "No, not since Tayo left." What? Tayo was gone? Why?

The pair continued to talk, but the medic slipped away in the shadows and rushed away to get to her home. This did not make any sense. Tayo had never given any indication of wanting to leave before. And the pink haired girl had been sure that the woman would have stayed to help rebuild the town. Tora was Tayo's home, why would she leave?

Sakura arrived at the house in record time. She burst inside of the building and immediately began searching for her caretaker. She checked every room in the house found no trace of the woman anywhere. There was no food, Tayo's clothes were gone, nearly every surface was beginning to get dusty. There was no sign of life anywhere in the house. Apparently the pair outside was right, Tayo was gone. The only thing left from the woman were the letters in the dresser, which Sakura stuffed in a bag she had found in the house to read later.

The pinkette let a tear slip down her cheek. Where would Tayo have gone? She didn't even get to say goodbye.

The antidote, the medic reminded herself. She needed to focus and get the antidote. Where did they put it again? Oh right, the room that they had reserved for medical supplies, duh. Hopefully Tayo hadn't taken it with her.

After looking in the room for a while the pinkette found the antidote. A small victory smile appeared on her face as she placed it in the bag. Finally she had it! Now all she had to was go and give it to Gaara. She bounded off away from the house towards the village.

Where was he? Oh right, the pirates were headed to Suna. So now she just had to go to…wait. How the heck was she supposed to get to Suna? That was across the flipping ocean!

"Hey how much longer is this going to take, yeah?" A male voiced asked. Sakura's stopped as heard the voice. Where was it coming from?

"Maybe if you shut your trap and helped us with the ship, it would go by faster." Another voice spoke up. They had a ship? The pinkette began to move towards the direction of the voices.

"Shut up, Kisame!" The first voice yelled. She was right next to the voices now, and could see the silhouettes of a group of people. "Why do we even have to go to Suna again anyways?"

"You're going to Suna?" She asked before she could stop herself. Right after she felt the urge to slap herself. Way to act before thinking.

The group went silent and she saw three individuals walking towards her. One had a high pony with light hair, one with dark hair in a low pony, and the last was large and had short hair. Knowing that it was too late to hide, she stayed frozen to her spot. "Why do you care yeah?" The man who had light hair in a high pony asked.

Well, might as well tell them now. "I want to go there too."

"And why should we let you go with us?" He asked.

That was a very good question; she really wished that she had an answer for him. "Well, umm. It would be really nice of you?" She offered.

He looked like he was about to laugh, but then the third male, who had dark hair in a low pony spoke up. "Step into the moonlight." Sakura did what he asked. She saw his eyes narrow. "Your hair is pink correct?" She nodded. "You are the princess of Heilig."

He knew that just based on her hair? Wow he was good. But obviously not from here. No one native to here knew of her real identity. "How do you know that?" The pinkette asked.

"Your profile is well known in certain parts of the world," he replied.

Vague much.

"And what parts of the world are _you_ from?" she asked him.

"We are from various parts of the world."

Based on his responses, she doubted that he was going to get any more specific. The medic sighed and said, "Anyways, I heard you guys say that you are going to Suna. I was wondering if I could accompany you."

'Heh, and why should why let you go with us pinky?" The large man asked.

"Gaa-"Wait, they really didn't need to know who it was. "Someone I know is poisoned. He'll die if he doesn't get the antidote. I need to get to Suna and give it to him."

The large man appeared sounded like he was about to speak, but the male with the low pony spoke first. "You may join us."

The other two instantly turned to look at him. From what she could tell, they both looked shocked. The large man didn't say anything, but the one with the high pony started to protest. "What the hell, Itachi?"

The one, apparently named Itachi, turned and looked at the man and said, "She is coming with us." The man grunted, but didn't protest after that.

The large man spoke up. "Ok pinky, first off I'm Kisame and the whiny blond over there is Deidara. And since apparently you'll be coming with us, you're going to help us with getting the ship ready."

Seemed like a fair trade off. She shrugged. "Alright."

"Well," Kisame began, starting to turn the other direction, "We should really get to the ship now."

The other two also turned around and the trio began to walk away. She followed behind them. As they walked, Itachi remained silent for the entire walk. Kisame seemed boisterous as he talked to (more like at) Itachi.

Deidara surprised her. At first he just walked behind the other two, grumbling to himself and occasionally glaring at Itachi. Sakura was feeling a tad bored and had decided to go up and talk to him. At first he made it obvious that he was trying to ignore her, going as far as to tell her that he was ignoring her (too which Kisame looked back at them and sarcastically told Deidara that he was being too subtle). But Sakura, now determined to get him to have a conversation with her, continued on talking, bringing up random conversation topics to see what would get a reaction out of him. After many failed attempts she was running out of ideas and almost ready to give up when she brought up how the sky looked so pretty right then that she felt an urge to paint a picture of it. He looked and her and asked if she liked art. She replied saying that although she personally did not do anything artistic, she did enjoy art itself. The blond proceeded to start a long conversation about his opinion on the subject that lasted the entire trip to the boat and the time that it took to prepare the ship.

By the end of it the pinkette had learned all she wanted to know about the blonde's love for the more…temporary versions of art and then some. He probably would have talked more but Kisame went up to them and told him to 'leave the poor girl alone before her ears bleed from hearing too much of his stupid ideas'.

Just before they were about to move the ship, Itachi went up to her. "Do you need anything before we go?" She shook her head. "Good." With that the anchor was raised and the ship began to move towards Suna.

For a while Sakura silently looked over the railing of the large boat and watched as she sailed her away from her home yet again. It was strange to think that this time she was leaving to _help_ the people who had originally taken her from her homeland (quite forcefully she might add). She must really be insane for doing this. Maybe after going to Suna she should go to a mental facility.

The girl continued to watch the waves until she grew bored of looking at the ocean. What else was there to do? After having spent quite a long time on a ship, one would think that she would have come up with options to kill time by now. Unfortunately she didn't.

Sakura could talk to Deidara again, but she didn't really want to hear more about explosions at the moment. Who else was there to talk to? She looked around and saw Itachi looking out onto the water. Why not talk to him? She walked over and stood beside him. "Hey." He glanced over at her. "So…" Time to think of a conversation topic. "Why are you going to Suna?" No response. "Fine, by like that." She joked. "Do you have a favourite colour?" Still no response. "Oh I see how it is." She grinned. "I'm just going to have make your responses up. She deepened her voice and said. "I like black because it's the colour of my hair." Her voice went back to normal. "Really? That's neat. Believe it or not I'm not really a fan of pink, even though that's my hair colour?" Deep again. "Really? I think your hair colour is sexy. I may seem stoic and hard but really I'm soft inside and love the colour pink, and rainbows and puppies and all things a three year old girl would like" Normal voice. "That's cute, what does your family think of that?" "Well-

"If I was as you say," Itachi cut her off. "My family would detest me, even more than they already do."

"Oh." She said slowly. "I'm sorry."

He turned and walked away, leaving Sakura feeling rotten. What did she do?

"Don't worry about it." Kisame told her, walking up to her. "He's sensitive about his family."

"Wish I knew that earlier," The female mumbled.

"You had no way of knowing," he replied carelessly. "Good job getting him to talk to you though. Normally he would have just walked away. You should feel lucky."

"Really?" She asked thoughtfully. "Interesting." She felt a yawn coming on and put up a hand to cover her mouth as it came.

Kisame chuckled. "You should probably get some sleep. It is late."

She nodded. "You're probably right. Where can I sleep?"

"If you go through that door." He pointed to down the ship. "You'll enter a hallway. There's a spare room at the end on the right side."

She smiled at him and began to walk. 'Thank you."

"Welcome, night pinky."

She turned and glared. "My name is Sakura, Sa-kur-a."

He grinned. "Whatever you say pinky."

She groaned and walked away, leaving him laughing on the deck.

Sakura didn't realize how tired she was until she entered the room and her eyes started to become droopy. She climbed into the bed and fell asleep before her head hit the pillow.

* * *

"Wakie wakie." A voice called to her. Her eyes fluttered open to see a blue man.

She groaned softly as she got up. "What time is it Kisame?"

"Not sure, but its past noon," he told her.

"I slept that long?" She said absently, looking down at herself. "Wow." She looked back at the man in the room. "What did you wake me up for?"

"We're eating," He explained. "I thought you might want something."

She smiled and got out of the bed. "Thank you."

They walked together to the room where the food was. There was food there, but the room itself was empty. "Where are the other two?" She asked him.

Kisame shrugged. "I said we were all eating, I didn't say that we were eating_ together_."

A flashback of Gaara's group having breakfast together entered her mind and the differences of them and Kisame's group struck her. Another strange thought entered her mind...she missed Gaara's group.

"Are you going to eat or just stand there like a statue all day?" The blue man asked, breaking her from her trance. "I'm ok with either, I was just wondering."

"Sorry," the pinkette quickly said and then proceeded to walk over to the food and select a few items.

After eating the pinkette wandered out onto the deck and saw Itachi. Remembering the events of the night before, she decided to walk to over to him. "Hey," She said sweetly once she was beside him. "I just wanted to apologize for last night; I didn't mean to make up upset."

"You had no way of knowing," he replied sharply, his gaze not meeting hers.

"I know," she replied. "Still doesn't change the fact that I wanted to say sorry for it." Her gaze drifted to the open water. "You know, when I was little, I used to be scared of going into open water." A small smile appeared on her face as she remembered. "About a week after I turned four, I had fallen into a lake and since, I couldn't swim, almost ended up drowning. I had been terrified of the water after that wouldn't even go near a river. But then, the woman who looked after me decided to help me get over my fear.

" She took me back to the lake where I had almost drowned, actually more like dragged me back, and told me to go into it. Obviously I refused. She told me that she was there for me, that she would help me if I needed it. Unfortunately that still didn't work so she picked me up and dunked me into the shallow part of the lake. I freaked out until I realized that I could still stand comfortably in that area. I stood there for about ten minutes, just standing. I was proud of myself for being able to stand there, I was happy. Until she told me to go in farther. I started to protest again, but she assured me again that she'd help me if I was in trouble. So I went in farther, and she taught me how to swim. And I've been fine with water ever since then."

He was silent for a moment, and then asked, "Why did you tell me that?"

She shrugged. "Wanted to make conversation."

The two were silent after that. It wasn't an awkward silence, it was a comfortable one. The two simply stood together watching the water.

Her days began to follow a pattern after that. Get woken up by Kisame, spend time with Itachi, and then going to talk with Deidara while he made his art out of clay (sometimes she even got him to respond about things _besides_ explosions). The time with Kisame and Deidara were ok, but she had to admit that the time with Itachi was her favourite. Even though he never told her anything about himself, or who he and the others were, or even why they were going to Suna. Despite the fact that she was the one who did about ninety percent of the talking, and although they spent a lot of time in silence, she liked being with him. She couldn't really describe why, but she found the black haired man sort of…comforting in a way.

* * *

It wasn't long until they arrived at Suna. At least, it didn't feel like it. When they stopped Kisame looked at her and said, "Well pinky, it's been fun."

"Yeah," She smiled as they walked off. "Maybe I'll see you guys again sometime."

"Umm, not likely yeah," Deidara spoke up.

"What?"

"We like to stay hidden," Kisame explained. "So we try to avoid being in places where most of the population can find us."

"So the chances of you seeing us again are very slim yeah," Deidara added.

"So I won't see you guys again?" The pinkette asked, feeling sad.

"Most likely not." Kisame replied.

'Ohh," She looked down at the ground. This really sucked. She was rather fond of these people. Her eyes traveled up to look at Itachi. It would be nice if she could see more of him.

But, if she couldn't, then there was really no point in worrying about it. "Well, if I can't see you again, then it's been really nice knowing all of you. I'm glad that I met all of you."

"You as well yeah." Deidara told her.

"See ya later pinky." Kisame told her.

She grinned at him. "You too blue boy." Deidara started laughing, and in response Kisame threw something at him. As the two fought, she glanced up at Itachi. Their eyes met, and he nodded at her. Knowing that that was as good of a response as she was going to get, she nodded back and began to walk away from the trio.

Sakura sighed in relief when she saw a builings in the distance. Finally civilization! She had been walking around trying to find some indication of where she was for two days now. During that time she made a mental note that next time she went on some kind of task like this, she should at least take a map with her.

Thankfully she had been smart when she had begun her journey off the ship and had taken water canteens and food rations with her. Turns out that Suna was in a desert. Not the best place to get lost in. But at least now she knew that she hated sand.

Her pace quickened as she walked into Suna. People were walking around quickly, going to various shops and stands along the road. Based on this, the pinkette guessed that she was in the marketplace.

Now, the reason that she was in Suna in the first place, Gaara. How could she find him? Well, maybe some of these people know who he is. Wait, if he was a pirate, then would people know who he was? And would speaking his name be like a taboo or something?

"I do hope that Gaara gets better." Sakura's eyes flew to the direction of the voice. It was a brunette girl, about her age, talking to another girl a ways away from the pinkette.

"Yes I hope so too," the other girl squealed. "He's so cute and adored by like, everyone. It would be horrible if he died!"

"I know," the first girl replied, starting to tear up.

Ok this did not make any sense. He was supposed to be a freaking pirate, why in heck would people praise him? She walked up to them. "Hey, I heard you talking about Gaara."

The two looked up at her. One of them glared at her, "What about it?"

"I was wondering where I might find him," the medic explained.

"He's in the castle," one of them explained quickly. The one who had been glaring at Sakura promptly turned and glared at her.

"You idiot, she probably wants to seduce Gaara and take him for herself."

Sakura didn't stay and listen to the rest of the conversation, knowing that it would probably get her nowhere. She asked a middle aged woman where the castle was and then booked it to the location.

As she ran she thought about Gaara. This did not make any sense. Why did people like him here? And with the things that she had found on the ship before she left, things were even more confusing. Gaara better wake up quickly so she could get an explanation from him!

It took her about twenty minutes to reach the castle. And what a huge castle it was. As she looked at it she couldn't help but wonder, what was the palace she was born in like? If she was in fact born in a palace that is. But since she is a princess, the chances of that happening are rather likely.

Wait, she was here to help Gaara, not to wonder where she was born. She walked forward. So where would the redhead be in a place like this.

"Hey," A familiar voice called out as a man came walking towards her. "What are you-Sakura?"

"Kankurou," she smiled.

He ran up to her. "But you-ran away-we thought-how-why-"

She laughed as he sputtered. "I came back to help Gaara."

"What?" He asked.

"He's still sick right?" He nodded. "Well, I went back home to get an antidote that will help him and brought it here."

"How did you get back?" He asked her.

"Look, can we do question and answer later?" The medic asked. "Right now I just want to help him."

He nodded quickly. "Follow me." He led her to the side of the castle and brought her in through a door. They passed by some people on their way through hallways. They looked confused when they saw Sakura but didn't even blink when they saw Kankurou.

"He's in here," he told her as they went inside a room.

Gaara was lying on a large bed. He looked even worse than before, if that was even possible. The redhead looked as if he was just barely holding on. "He wasn't woken up yet." Kankurou said grimly.

She walked towards him, taking out the oh so important vile. The antidote had worked every time back home, she really hoped that it would work now. And not just because she gone to such great lengths to get it. She wanted to him to get better. She really, really did.

The medic sat next to him on the bed and gently opened his mouth. Then she opened the vial, and put some of the medicine in his mouth and then induced him to swallow. After that was the real hard part, waiting.

She didn't know how long she sat there for. All she knew was that when Gaara coughed and slowly opened his eyes, her felt her heart jump. "Hi," she said softly.

"Where, where am I?" Gaara asked.

"In Suna," she replied. "Apparently that's where you were going after I left."

"You left?" He asked, confusion evident on his face.

She nodded. "When you were sick, I suspected that you were bitten by a snake. No one else on the boat believed me. So I snuck off of it and went back home to get you the antidote for the bite. And then I came here to give it to you."

"So you left. Why did you come here?" He asked.

"To help you," Sakura replied. "You're welcome for that by the way."

His eyes narrowed. "Why?"

She shrugged. "I guess you and your little posse grew on me." She looked around the room. "It's nice here, minus the horrible weather and sand everywhere of course. That reminds me." She glanced at him. "You have some explaining to do."

He glanced at her. "Really?"

She nodded, and thought of everything that had made her confused, all the little findings she had discovered. And she came to one conclusion. "You're not really a pirate are you?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Then what are you?" She asked him.

He looked down for a moment, as if trying to decide something. Then his gaze met hers. "This," he explained. "Is a lot bigger then you think it is."

* * *

**And...complete! This fic is finished. I will be putting up a sequel for this, so no I did not leave it at a cliffy for nothing. The fact that Itachi allowed Sakura onto the ship for seemingly no reason I will admit does seem strange, but I actually do have a reason for this that will come up later. **

**I'd like to thank everyone who has read/reviewed/favourited the story. It really does mean a lot to me. Hope everyone has enjoyed the story! **


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